Previously on Lake City Quiet Pills’ Part 2, the Reddit users found many hidden messages in HTML code of the website, looked like job listings, which detailed requirements that sound an awful lot like mercenary or assassin work.
Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh
Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh – a key person of Hamas Palestine
In the 1970’s, Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh joined the Muslim Brotherhood in the Gaza Strip. In the mid-1980’s, Al-Mabhouh began to associate with Hamas – the organization that petitions for the creation of a Palestinian state. Many consider it a terrorist organization, but it has also been serving as the governing body for the Gaza Strip for more than a decade.
Over the next two-and-a-half decade, Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh earned a reputation in Hamas. In particular, he claimed credit for the 1989 killing of two Israeli soldiers. This made him one of Israel‘s Most Wanted.
By the mid-2000’s, he was serving as the chief of logistics and weapons procurement for the military wing of Hamas, and was playing a vital role in the burgeoning relationship between Hamas and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
This made Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh a target. Towards the end of the early 2000’s, he became the target of multiple assassination attempts.
He lived in Syria but often traveled around the Middle East, conducting business for Hamas. He usually traveled under fake names, using fake passports, with security guards.
His computer had been hacked by a trojan software. In early January of 2010, Al-Mabhouh book a flight to Dubai, stayed there for at least two days.
On this trip, he was not going to be followed by bodyguards, who would arrive a day after him. For at least 24 hours, Al-Mabhouh would be in a foreign nation, isolated and alone.
The flight of death
On January 19th, 2010, Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh arrived in Dubai, UAE. He was flying alone, under a fake name, and with no security guards.
Earlier that day, his trip had been preceded by a small network of men and women. Numbering around two dozen in total, these individuals had arrived in Dubai using fake names and passports of their own, and began coordinating their efforts to track Al-Mabhouh. They likely knew the ins-and-outs of each hotel, and were waiting in the lobbies of every hotel, awaiting his arrival.
On at least two occasions, these men and women would enter restrooms to briefly change up their disguise, and don a wig or exchange items of clothing. This footage also shows Al-Mabhouh arriving at the Al Bustan Rotana Hotel, room 230, where two men were standing in the lobby, wearing tennis gear and holding tennis rackets.
As Al-Mabhouh makes his way to his hotel room, one operative remains in the lobby, and begins reporting in to the other operatives. At this point, the other operatives – who are all in hotels in the surrounding region – begin to converge on this location.
A man whose fake passport named as “Peter Elvinger” – makes a phone call from the business center of another hotel nearby. He requests the room directly across the hall from Al-Mabhouh – room 237.
This is all captured by security cameras. When another hotel guest walks out of a nearby elevator, one of the operatives attempts to distract them while the other operative continues breaking room 230, and they make short work of the door’s lock. When Al-Mabhouh returns to the room at around 8:30 PM, he has no suspicions whatsoever. The door unlocks normally, and he enters… completely and totally unaware that there are a handful of individuals waiting for him inside.
Roughly twenty minutes later, the operatives in room 230 begin exiting the room, and return to room 237. They begin to exit the hotel one-by-one, with all of their belongings in-tow.
Within four hours, almost all of these men and women have left Dubai entirely, with their flights taking them all across the globe: to Frankfurt (Germany), Bangkok (Thailand), Zurich (Switzerland), Rome (Italy), Johannesburg (South Africa), Paris (France), and Doha (Qatar).
Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh’s body was discovered until the next morning – roughly twelve hours after he had been killed.
About the Assassins
When hotel staff checked in on Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh the next morning – on January 20th, 2010 – they noted that the door was locked from the inside. This made the death appear natural, and investigators originally noted the death as being from natural causes.
Prior to his death, Al-Mabhouh had been injected with a fast-acting muscle relaxant – succinylcholine – but which acted as a paralyzing agent. Despite remaining conscious through the proceeding events, Al-Mabhouh was unable to resist.
Al-Mahmoud was electrocuted prior to his death, and when he was finally killed, it came via suffocation via pillow.
However, that was not the first visit of the assassins to Dubai. Almost all of these men and women had visited Dubai numerous times in the preceding months, allowing them to get a feel for the hotels and the quickest routes between locations. They had checked in to various hotels in the region; each of them being hotels that Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh had previously stayed at.
They all been using fake passports, which included the UK, Ireland, Australia, France, and Germany. In addition, several of these operatives had made phone calls to a number in Austria.
While some of the assassins had paid their way in cash, many of them had used Payoneer – a specific type of prepaid credit card. These credit cards had been branded in the United States, but it was rumored that the CEO of Payoneer – Yuval Tal – had direct ties to Israeli intelligence – Mossad. Due to the victim being a high-ranking member of Hamas, as well as being a long-sought target of their intelligence forces, it made sense that Israel was involved in some fashion.
Suspects wanted by Interpol
Conclusion of investigation
In February of 2010, the chief of Dubai police publicly stated that this assassination was most likely ordered by Mossad – Israel’s intelligence force. Israel refused the claim.
A total of 18 operatives were named, 11 has faces, wanted by Interpol, but because they had been using fake identities at the time of this operation, it was unknown who, exactly, they were.
Foreign Affairs ministry of the UK, France, Ireland stated that the passports used had been fakes. The United States refused to investigate Payoneer credit cards’ holders.
Some people who were suspected as coordinators of the assassins were arrested in Jordan and Poland, but could not sentence. They were disappeared after that.
Related to Lake City Quiet Pills
There was a message sent out on January 12th, 2010 – just about a week before the assassination unfolded in Dubai. That message invited people out to a birthday celebration for Milo – aka /u/ReligionOfPeace, the Reddit user that had died the year prior. The message hidden in Lake City Quiet Pills’ HTML code stated that the party started at around 15:00, roughly fitting in with the time period that Al-Mabhouh was flying into Dubai.
Another message was sent out the day before the assassination:
“we got 38 rooms in the marriot on 46. shade has the key cards for locals (pick up at the party). give your travel name to the desk and that’s it. no id needed since were covering the bill. keep the room service under 500, okay? the phones there are not secure.
“bus from the hotel leafs at 13:30. car service vowchers for return trip when your ready to crash. DONT DUI!!!!”
These instructions seem very odd for a party. Who needs to worry about using a travel name for a birthday party? Who needs to worry about insecure phone lines? What kind of party rents out 38 rooms in a single hotel?
Party bills
Until February 2nd, 2010 – roughly two weeks later. That post, titled “party bills,” read as follows:
“here is the final for the party
“hotel rooms 48341 limo 6080 bus 569 bar bill 18890 food 8030 dancers 8300 misc tips 850 misc exp 2840 med supplies 180 (fat tommy and stu are okay, to.)
“total 94080
“you all did dutch milo proud. thanks.”
Over the next few months, people involved with the site continued to post the strange, hidden job postings from before:
“Immediate need! 4 korean. fluent korean/dialect/accent details after contact. 6 week halfpay sequester on refusal. 6mo gig. bonus.”
“2 “business class” security. nonconus. fluent french req.”
“2 lite surveil. no us w/w. no mex w/w.”
HTML code of Lake City Quiet Pills were revealed on Reddit. After that, the code for Lake City Quiet Pills was changed and encrypted, unable to read again.
The mystery had just been born
The website was taken offline finally. The website once known as Lake City Quiet Pills was gone, but the mystery had just been born and unsolved forever.
It’s possible that this was mostly contracting work – stuff like security and bodyguards – who often provided protection for companies and business executives. Or a hoax?
In addition to the assassination of Mahmoud Al-Mahbouh remaining unsolved to this day, the story behind Lake City Quiet Pills remains unresolved.
