He did business in the Philippines, Hong Kong, Africa and Brazil

A team of divers swimming around the coral in the South Pacific decided to check out a luxury yacht, apparently undamaged as it lay on its side on the reef. Their curiosity soon turned to shock and horror.

Inside, slumped at the controls was the decomposing body of a caucasian man with American dollars, European and South American money and passports scattered around him. In the hull were hundreds of packets of white powder that police soon confirmed was cocaine worth more than a cool £80million.

The 40ft yacht, JeReVe meaning I Dream, had been tracked across 6,000 miles of the Pacific Ocean from Ecuador by US and Australian drug enforcement agencies, but then they lost it - until the divers found it on the reef ten miles north of Tonga's main island on November 7, 2012.

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Master criminal: This airport surveillance camera image is the only photo to emerge allegedly showing Paul Calder Le Roux, the boss of a criminal empire spanning Hong Kong, the Phillipines, Brazil and Africa

The body was later identified as that of a 35-year-old Slovak national, Milan Rindzak, the cause of death uncertain. No-one has come forward to claim Ridsak's corpse.

While America's Drug Enforcement Agency has remained tight-lipped about who was behind the drug-running operation, involving the largest haul in Pacific history, MailOnline can reveal that at its head is allegedly a master criminal whose empire has stretched around the world for years.

Paul Calder Le Roux is regarded by US agents as 'a bad guy, a very bad guy'. In fact he is possibly the world's most successful criminal who no-one has heard of - a figure who could easily slip into the role of any James Bond villain.

He has ducked and weaved his way around the globe, keeping himself just about at arms-length from dangerous deals on four continents in cocaine, gold, diamonds, weapons, murder and even selling prescription drugs illegally over the internet.

He deals in 'anything, clean or dirty, that makes a bucket-load of money,' one source has told MailOnline.

The New York Times has compared him to the infamous Russian arms dealer, Vicktor Bout, who was the inspiration for the movie Lord of War.

Le Roux is a chameleon, able to cunningly slip into any role that circumstance demands. He plays 'Mr Ordinary' to those who do not know him, his only outstanding features being his height and a strong gaze.

He studiously avoids having his photo taken and only a few grainy shots of him are known to exist beyond those captured on intelligence surveillance cameras.

In private, he exudes supreme confidence to those he has trusted to work with him, including a small group of former Israeli military conscripts.

He has always been in total command as he plotted his next fantastic, daring, money-making venture.

But his latest role is that of prize snitch. Le Roux, a South African in his 40s, is understood to be in a secret location somewhere in the United States after cutting a deal with the FBI and Drug Enforcement Agency.

He was picked up in Liberia in late 2012 and handed over to DEA agents while he was running an operation in Africa, believed to be in relation to the voyage of the doomed yacht JeReVe.

Shocking discovery: Divers came across the 40ft yacht, JeReVe, and the body of 35-year-old Slovak national, Milan Rindzak surrounded by wads of cash

Drugs haul: More than 200 one-kilo blocks of cocaine were discovered on board the ship worth £80m

Global: It is claimed that the yacht was one of two sent by Le Roux or his associates from Ecuador to the Philippines and Australia. The first reached its destination but the JeReVe ran hit a storm off the Tonga coast

His capture is so secret that no public paperwork exists that relates to his case with his files being sealed in the U.S.

He is not just in custody for the public's protection - but he is being held for his own protection. Now has many powerful enemies who would like to see him dead.

At least 11 people he is said to have pointed the finger at are now facing unspecified charges.

Yet his arrest has allowed his extraordinary story - a real-life crime thriller - to begin to seep out into the public domain.

Federal agents have a huge file on him and dozens of incidents to which his name is linked, including the 2009 seizure of a ship-load of arms in the Philippines and the subsequent murder of the vessel's British captain who was gunned down by assassins on a motorcycle as he drove his car through a city north of Manila.

And most recently he allegedly helped the FBI set up a sting in which a former U.S. sniper nicknamed Rambo with Special Forces training was arrested after allegedly assembling a team to assassinate a drug agent for $800,000 in a plot involving private jets and latex mask disguises.

He deals in anything, clean or dirty, that makes a bucket-load of money

Le Roux has let little slip about his early life, but former associates say he is the illegitimate son of a poor teenager in the former Southern Rhodesia who was later adopted by a couple in South Africa.

He later moved to Australia where he studied I.T. and, at a young age, married an Australian woman. It was a violent relationship that ended in divorce, but not before a son was born.

He began to make his vast fortune by selling prescription pills illegally on the internet. It is claimed he employed doctors especially to manufacture the drugs.

Le Roux was never charged when the fraud was exposed but agents told the New York Times that he was an unindicted co-conspirator.

Then in 2008, he splashed out $12m he had made from the pills and other business ventures to secure 99-year leases on farmland seized by the Zimbabwean government as part of the country's controversial land reform programme.

'It didn't have much success,' a person who has met Le Roux told MailOnline. 'He wanted to see Zimbabwe back under the control of the whites.

'There was even talk of him being behind a plot to remove President Mugabe, but Mugabe is still there, of course.'

Snitch: Le Roux is now helping the FBI with an alleged plot by his former bodyguard and ex-US Army sniper, Joseph Hunter - nicknamed Rambo - to assassinate a federal drug official for $800,000

After meeting a Filipina woman and setting up home in a luxury gated community in Manila, Le Roux was linked by the UN to a company called La Plata Trading Inc. which came to be embroiled in an infamous gun-running case.

In August 2009, a Turkish-based ship, the Captain Ufuk, owned by the company, was boarded in the Philippines by customs officials who found that its 'commercial cargo' was, in fact a large shipment of Israeli Galil assault rifles and pistols intended for rebels in the south of the country.

Men arrested over the operation claim that the guns were due to be delivered to La Plata Trading Inc.

The British captain of the vessel, 50-year-old Bristol-born Bruce Jones, managed to flee before the customs raid and remained in hiding for weeks before coming forward and agreeing to tell the authorities all that he knew about the ship and its cargo.

However, he insisted he would talk only if he was placed on a witness protection programme. But whatever protection he was given wasn't good enough.

In September 2010, as Jones and his Filipina wife were driving through Angeles City, near Manila, he was shot dead by two assassins on a motorcycle.

Just recently, in mid-December, the replacement captain of the Ufuk, South African Lawrence Burne, was sentenced in absentia to eight years imprisonment for tax evasion related to the gun shipments.

Several other people in the Philippines linked to Le Roux are also facing tax evasion charges.

Le Roux was never officially linked to Jones' death, but in July 2011 his name came up in relation to gun-running when the UN marked him as a man who, two years earlier, had spent $3 million, which included nearly $1 million in salaries, to supply weapons including AK47s and light machine guns to Somalian militias in violation of an arms embargo.

Gun-running: A large shipment of Israeli Galil assault rifles and pistols were found on board the Captain Ufuk, destined to be delivered to La Plata Trading Inc which Le Roux was linked to, in August 2009

Firearms: Customs and Coast Guard officials seized the guns while on board the Captain Ufuk at the Port of Mariveles in the Philippines

Murdered: The British captain of the vessel, Bruce Jones, managed to flee before the customs raid but agreed to tell authorities what he knew if he was placed on a witness protection programme. However, he was shot dead by two assassins on a motorcycle while driving through Angeles City, near Manila

One of his partners in that operation was also said by the UN to have been involved in a plot to cultivate hallucinogenic plants near the Ethiopian border.

Lachlan McConnell, a security contractor, who is facing charges related to Le Roux's painkiller scam, told the New York Times: 'Le Roux's businesses were huge. He had operations in Manila, Hong Kong, Colombia, Africa, Brazil. It was guns, gold, drugs, you name it. It was big, really big.'

Late at night in mid-May 2012, Le Roux arrived at Rio de Janeiro's Galeao airport, accompanied by his Filipino wife, Cindy Cayanan, and their five-year-old daughter.

He told immigration officials that he had brought his family with him to show them around.

But that 'tour' wasn't going to happen. Anti-drug authorities in the US, Australia and Hong Kong had been keeping track of Le Roux and knew that his visit had nothing to do with sightseeing - but to arrange another drug operation.

They watched him as he strolled casually through shopping malls in shorts and sandals, playing his well-practised role of Mr Innocent.

Le Roux's businesses were huge. He had operations in Manila, Hong Kong, Colombia, Africa, Brazil. It was guns, gold, drugs, you name it. It was big, really big Lachlan McConnell, security contractor linked to Le Roux

He had in fact, lived in the city two years earlier and according to a Brazilian newspaper, Folha de S.Paulo, had a son with a local woman.

While he was away, the paper said, his business affairs were cared for by three Israeli men.

This particular visit, though, was to arrange for the departure of two Ecuadorian boats on a drug run, each with around 200 kilos of cocaine, one intended for the Philippines, the other for Australia.

The boat heading for the Philippines reached its destination without incident - but the second vessel, the yacht JeReVe, ran into a storm off the coast of Tonga.

And there on a reef, with one man dead and decomposing and the other missing, it was found by the team of divers.

Le Roux, who had in the meantime been living in Liberia, was arrested by DEA agents. He was taken to the U.S. and the questioning began. It seems he had much to talk about.

But in spilling details that could have come from the pages of an international spy novel, the man who for two decades has allegedly splashed out millions to finance his global criminal enterprise, has put a heavy price on his own head.

He has already helped the FBI and DEA to trap his former bodyguard, Joseph Hunter - nicknamed Rambo.

Hunter was caught in a sting where agents faked an order for a hit ion a bid to hire the former US Army sniper to assassinate a federal drug official for $800,000.

U.S. prosecutors claim that Hunter, originally from Owensboro, Kentucky, was caught on tape plotting the murders.

It is alleged that Hunter was hired by agents posing as a Colombia cartel who met him in Thailand. He was to be their 'head of security' and told him to assemble a team of men. He did over the internet.

In May 2013, the undercover agents offered him and his hired guns a 'bonus job', reports the New York Times.

It was to kill a DEA agent and an informant in Liberia. According to prosecutors, Hunter wrote in an email: 'They will handle both jobs, they just need good tools'.

Infamous: Le Roux has been compared to Russian arms dealer, Vicktor Bout (pictured), who was the inspiration for the movie Lord of War

These tools were two submachine guns with silencers, a .308 calibre rifle with a scope and two .22 calibre pistols. The last two were a 'must', Hunter allegedly wrote.