Virtual Event: Threat Detection and Incident Response Summit - Watch Sessions
Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

SecurityWeekSecurityWeek

Tracking & Law Enforcement

Guatemala Expels John McAfee to the United States

GUATEMALA CITY – US anti-virus software pioneer John McAfee escaped immediate deportation to Belize on Wednesday as Guatemala decided to expel the American back to the United States instead.

“Mr McAfee will be expelled to the United States shortly,” said immigration spokesman Fernando Lucer, as an AFP photographer witnessed him being taken from his detention center to the airport by police convoy.

GUATEMALA CITY – US anti-virus software pioneer John McAfee escaped immediate deportation to Belize on Wednesday as Guatemala decided to expel the American back to the United States instead.

“Mr McAfee will be expelled to the United States shortly,” said immigration spokesman Fernando Lucer, as an AFP photographer witnessed him being taken from his detention center to the airport by police convoy.

McAfee, who entered Guatemala illegally after more than three weeks on the run, is wanted in Belize for questioning over his neighbor’s murder last month.

His specific destination was not immediately known. Lucer said only that he would be put on a commercial flight.

The 67-year-old McAfee, who was arrested on December 5 for entering Guatemala illegally, denies murdering his neighbor and says he went on the run because he feared for his life if apprehended in Belize.

His request last week for asylum in Guatemala was denied. Authorities in Belize want to question him about the death of 52-year-old Florida expatriate Gregory Faull, who was found by his housekeeper with a 9-mm bullet in his head, lying in a pool of his own blood.

Prior to his murder, Faull had orchestrated a letter of complaint to the local mayor, urging the authorities to take action because McAfee’s “vicious” dogs and aggressive security guards were scaring tourists and residents.

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.

McAfee shot dead four of his dogs before fleeing, claiming they had been poisoned by Faull.

Police in Belize said weeks ago that ballistics experts were seeking a match between bullets founds in the dog carcasses and one found in the murder victim, but no results have been announced.

McAfee has not been directly accused of Faull’s murder, but police have said he is wanted for questioning as a “person of interest” in the case.

McAfee amassed an estimated $100 million fortune during the early days of the Internet in the 1990s, designing the pioneering anti-virus software that bears his name, before cashing out to become an intrepid adventure-seeker.

He decamped to Belize in 2009 after losing most of his fortune due to bad investments and the financial crisis.

McAfee was briefly incarcerated in April after police found him living with a 17-year-old girl and discovered an arsenal of seven pump-action shotguns, one single-action shotgun, and two 9-mm pistols.

Written By

AFP 2023

Click to comment

Daily Briefing Newsletter

Subscribe to the SecurityWeek Email Briefing to stay informed on the latest threats, trends, and technology, along with insightful columns from industry experts.

SecurityWeek’s Threat Detection and Incident Response Summit brings together security practitioners from around the world to share war stories on breaches, APT attacks and threat intelligence.

Register

Securityweek’s CISO Forum will address issues and challenges that are top of mind for today’s security leaders and what the future looks like as chief defenders of the enterprise.

Register

Expert Insights

Related Content

Cybercrime

No one combatting cybercrime knows everything, but everyone in the battle has some intelligence to contribute to the larger knowledge base.

Cybercrime

The FBI dismantled the network of the prolific Hive ransomware gang and seized infrastructure in Los Angeles that was used for the operation.

Ransomware

The Hive ransomware website has been seized as part of an operation that involved law enforcement in 10 countries.

Cybercrime

Spanish Court agreed to extradite Joseph James O’Connor to he U.S., who allegedly took part in the July 2020 hacking of Twitter accounts of...

Ransomware

US government reminds the public that a reward of up to $10 million is offered for information on cybercriminals, including members of the Hive...

Privacy

Employees of Chinese tech giant ByteDance improperly accessed data from social media platform TikTok to track journalists in a bid to identify the source...

Cybercrime

A hacker who reportedly posed as the CEO of a financial institution claims to have obtained access to the more than 80,000-member database of...

Application Security

Virtualization technology giant Citrix on Tuesday scrambled out an emergency patch to cover a zero-day flaw in its networking product line and warned that...