Bloody Duty

"Was the torture and killing of a German businessman by three U.S. Army vets a gruesome hit job? Or a simple shakedown gone horribly wrong?"

- By Charles Coxe. Illustrations by The Sporting Press

Lukas Fecker was pissed.

The Swiss CEO's American “protection,” U.S. Army veteran Justin Causey, had failed him again.

5 weeks, Fecker texted Causey in an encrypted messaging app. Five weeks of failure with two different attempts by different teams of supposedly highly trained American military personnel, all to shake down an unpaid debt from an overweight, middle-aged German businessman living in the Netherlands.

The businessman was Thomas Schwarz-a milksop,” Fecker texted angrily, who did not employ bodyguards, and should have been an easy target. Causey messaged back that he could assemble a new team, former military guys this time instead of active duty, so they could stay as long as it took to get the job done after Christmas.

“I lose the company next Thursday, and have no right to claim from Schwarz thereafter, Fecker snapped back. Fecker didn't detail the full extent of his financial crisis but his message was clear: Causey had only days to get Fecker's 3 million euros from Schwarz or it was too late.

Causey immediately messaged Jacob Mazeika in Connecticut. A former Army Ranger and Afghanistan and Iraq veteran he'd served with, Mazeika also did international private security work. The two talked logistics. Causey cautioned it was tougher that it seemed to “grab this guy without alerting his neighbors, despite the fact that Schwarz was “fat, not strong.

If the door closes and the street is clear, we take the key and open,” Causey messaged Mazeika, suggesting using an incapacitating sharp chop to the neck they'd learned in Army basic training: Brachial stun makes one quiet.