Maniac warlords, £250k hits & a disastrous secret mission to kill Pablo Escobar… my life as a ruthless Brit mercenary

DAVE Tomkins has spent much than 4 decades negotiating amerciable arms deals and warring wars astir the satellite - successful speech for immense sums of cash. 

But erstwhile helium was offered $1million to assassinate notorious Colombian cause lord Pablo Escobar, helium was ensnared by an elaborate sting which would yet pb to his downfall. 

Now a caller BBC documentary reveals the untold communicative of the erstwhile safe cracker from Basingstoke who took currency from bloodthirsty warmongers successful the world’s deadliest conflicts, contempt nary subject training.

“War is addictive, chaos is addictive,” helium recalls successful the film, Dogs Of War. “It was similar a cause and I loved it.

“I could consciousness ashamed astir it, I person evidently contributed to the deaths of radical who shouldn’t person died, but if you merchantability weapons, weapons kill.

“I americium a transgression and I marque nary f***ing bones astir it.”

Now 84 and suffering from bladder cancer, Tomkins looks backmost connected an bonzer vocation of cold-blooded killing, which followed a profoundly troubled childhood. 

After being forced to ticker his beloved parent effort termination arsenic a young boy, Tomkins ended up successful a psychiatric hospital, earlier being expelled from schoolhouse astatine 13 for being "unmanageable".

As a teenager, pursuing a abbreviated stint successful the merchant navy, helium punched a constabulary serviceman successful the look and was sent to situation where, helium says, “I decided to go a criminal.”

Back connected the streets, helium learnt however to marque terrifyingly unsafe explosives and soon made murky contacts successful the transgression underworld. 

“You can’t bargain nitroglycerine, you can’t bargain it, truthful you person to marque it," helium said.

"And you request large balls to marque it due to the fact that it’s dangerous." 

In 1976, with civilian warfare raging successful Angola, Tomkins was recruited to articulation a pack of erstwhile cops and nonrecreational soldiers claiming to beryllium warring the dispersed of communism.

They were led by bloodthirsty ex-para Costas 'Colonel Callan' Georgiou, who had been booted retired of the Army for stealing a instrumentality weapon and robbing a Post Office.

He went rogue again successful Angola - gunning down anyone who dared to situation his authority, earlier being captured and killed by a firing squad.

Former BBC newsman Martin Bell, who appears connected the documentary, said: “I was unimpressed with the subject qualities of the ragtag mercenaries.”

Tomkins was sent backmost to Britain aft a landmine helium was burying exploded.

He explains: “The blast of it and the shrapnel blew a spread successful my a*se.

“Angola was a rite of passage. A batch of radical died. I went for the money.”

Before agelong Tomkins was hired to program the assassination of the President of Togo, Etienne Gnassingbe Eyadema.

He leapt astatine the opportunity.

“My morality lone stretches truthful acold I’m afraid," helium admitted. "He had changeable the erstwhile president.

"I did the probe and knew Togo amended than I knew Basingstoke.”

But Tomkins spotted an accidental to marque much wealth by debriefing his people connected the crippled - and sold his elaborate accusation to the West African regime.

Foiling the crippled earnt him £250,000. "The motivation compass mightiness beryllium a spot off,” helium added.

World of opportunity

Dave plunged himself into the satellite of espionage, mounting up mercenary operations, assassinations and immense arms deals. 

His exploits became legendary arsenic helium accumulated immense wealthiness and lived a lavish jet-setting lifestyle.

“For the archetypal clip successful my beingness I felt affluent and I became a broker of weapons," helium says.

"Where there’s warfare and chaos there’s billions and billions of dollars to beryllium made, and I conscionable wanted a small portion of the action.

“I saw the weaknesses successful the strategy and exploited them.

"There was a full myriad of transgression enactment going connected down the scenes - corrupting pilots of planes and ship’s skippers. 

“Money is king.

“It was each kinds of brainsick things similar overthrowing a state oregon assassinating a president. 

“It was a clip of struggle everywhere, the full satellite was looking for weapons. 

"If I didn’t merchantability them idiosyncratic other would, and I wanted it to beryllium me.

“It was a atrocious clip for the satellite but a bully clip for me.

“My passport shows maine having been successful each the hotspots. 

“I shipped weapons each implicit the world, bombs and missiles, successful their millions of dollars worth. 

“Whatever the lawsuit wanted I would provide.

“I’m arsenic blameworthy arsenic misdeed but I was wasn’t liable for the wars.

"I assisted successful them, yes, but I can’t beryllium atrocious for everybody successful the world.

"The satellite is what it is. I was rolling successful clover but it was excessively bully to beryllium existent and it each went wrong."

Luck runs out

Dave had travelled to Kuwait successful 1981, Nigeria successful 1982, Lebanon successful 1983, Iraq, Iran, Syria and beyond.

But his luck began to tally retired successful 1991, erstwhile an effort to bargain a combatant pitchy successful Miami acceptable disconnected a concatenation of events that would yet culminate successful his downfall. 

Colombia was being ravaged by a vicious warfare betwixt 2 cause cartels - Medellin, which was led by Escobar, and their feared rivals the Cali Cartel.

Worth much than £40billion, Escobar was the wealthiest transgression successful history.

At the tallness of his powers helium was smuggling 15 tons of cocaine per DAY. Rival cartels were kept astatine bay with bullets and bombs.

The Cali cartel hired Tomkins to find a fighter-bomber pitchy to driblet 500lb of explosives onto Escobar's situation compartment from the air.

Tomkins, who handpicked a Dirty Dozen of ex-special forces men for the mission, said: “I was precise excited.

"It was a fabulous opportunity, financially interesting.”

He was charging $1,000 a day. 

But the Miami crooks who contacted him claiming to beryllium selling an A-37B Dragonfly onslaught level turned retired to beryllium undercover US authorities agents.

Although Tomkins fled the state helium was charged successful his lack with conspiracy to interruption arms export laws by attempting to bargain the plane.

When helium returned to the US successful 2003 to instrumentality portion successful a chemic weapons endurance people truthful that helium could enactment successful Iraq, helium was arrested, and successful 2004 helium was jailed successful the US for 33 months.

By past helium was acold excessively precocious to termination Escobar anyway.

In 1993, a time aft his 44th birthday, the cause baron was gunned down aft escaping situation — not by hired British assassins, but by Colombian cops.

Dogs of War is disposable connected iPlayer now