In 2007, the palace Palacio el-Mifadil in Marbella, Spain, was home to Syrian arms merchant Monzer al-Kassar. There, al-Kassar got ready to welcome two Guatemalan weapons dealers seeking arms for Colombia’s chief guerrilla movement, FARC. Though he had a legal business career, al-Kassar was best known for supplying arms to states and insurgent groups that would typically be barred from accessing weapons. When asked, al-Kassar denied any role in the trade or any moral responsibility for his connections to those outside the bounds of international respectability. His decades of work in many countries meant he had cultivated connections inside governments, which former CIA agents tell Keefe explained his relatively relaxed air.

Keefe reveals that the meeting was in fact a sting operation staged by the DEA. Keefe meets former DEA agent Jim Soiles, whose interest in al-Kassar dates back decades due to the interconnections between drug trafficking and other illegal criminal enterprises, including weapons sales. Keefe delves into al-Kassar’s biography: his youth as the son of a Syrian diplomat, early criminal career, ties to then-communist Eastern Europe, and career selling weapons from there to various global conflict zones. The secret to al-Kassar’s success, Keefe notes, is changing jurisdictions: