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Mark Staake and his nephew were arrested on November 20 in a murder-for-hire plot. Nearly a month later, we've found out that the murder-for-hire involved... Justin Bieber — and castration. There may have been jokes before about wanting to kill the pop sensation for being mildly annoying, but KRQE television, a CBS affiliate based in Albuquerque, has frightening new details of what looks like an actual assassination plot. It all started with finding the hitmen in a Las Cruces prison, allegedly:

That’s where Staake met Dana Martin, a convicted killer serving two life sentences for raping and killing a 15-year-old girl in Vermont, in 2000. Martin recruited Staake who in turn recruited his nephew to carry out four murders after Staake got out of prison. Cops say Martin asked the two to first go to Vermont and take out two former acquaintances. He gave strict orders to strangle the victims with a paisley tie, the kind Martin used as his calling card, and here is where things get grisly.

So, yes, that's scary. And paisley ties aside, how does this already strange scheme involve Justin Bieber? Well, Staake and his nephew, Tanner Ruane, were supposed to go to New York, where Bieber was playing Madison Square Garden on November 28 — yes, the same concert after which Lindsay Lohan was arrested. And that was to be the scene of the crime:

Martin told cops there was a bigger plot, the murder and castration of Bieber and his bodyguard. Turns out Martin is obsessed with Bieber and KRQE News 13 has learned he's even got a tattoo of the superstar on his leg. Staake was arrested in Vermont on outstanding warrants before carrying out any of the killings, but his nephew was let go.

Castration and murder are not funny. And mind you, that's a completely separate murder plot from the one attempted during Bieber's South American tour in 2011 — that time Beliebers came out in droves to thwart a Facebook threat from a Peruvian named Jose Chavez. For now, the New Mexico men remain in custody, and — we kid you not — pruning shears were found on Tanner Ruane when he was picked up in New York, and have been collected as evidence.

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