{{US police have foiled a plot to kill teen pop idol Justin Bieber and possibly castrate him with pruning shears, with the alleged killer promised $2,500 per testicle, legal documents revealed Thursday.}}<\/p>\n
Mark Staake, 41, and his nephew, Tanner Ruane, were arrested in Vermont and New York last month and face charges in New Mexico of conspiracy to commit murder and conspiracy to commit aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.<\/p>\n
The pair were allegedly plotting to strangle two victims and castrate them with pruning shears, but a convicted killer who is serving life in prison told police that the \u201cultimate\u201d target was Bieber, who was performing in New York.<\/p>\n
\u201cThrough follow-up investigation it was discovered that Justin Bieber may have also been a target of the murder plot,\u201d said a statement by New Mexico\u2019s Department of Public Safety.<\/p>\n
An affidavit detailed the grisly plot, including the brand of pruning shears and how the testicles would be transported after the planned murders of two male victims in the northeastern state of Vermont.<\/p>\n
Staake and Ruane arrived in Vermont by car on November 19 planning to kill their victims \u2014 identified only as P.L. and M.S., and referred to as \u201cdogs\u201d \u2014 by strangling them with a necktie, the affidavit said.<\/p>\n
Dana Martin, who was jailed for life for a 2000 murder in Vermont and who had met Staake in jail in New Mexico, allegedly recruited Staake to carry out the murders. Staake then asked his nephew to help.<\/p>\n
In a telephone call Martin \u2014 who is allegedly infatuated with Bieber \u2014 asked Staake what he was going to use to castrate the victims.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr Ruane stated that he had brought a pair of hand (held) hedge clippers,\u201d adding that he expected to be paid \u201cfive large\u201d \u2014 $2,500 \u2014 for each testicle he got, said the affidavit, which said the shears were made by Durasharp.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr Martin asked if they had bags to put the testicles in, and Mr Ruane stated that he had something. Mr Martin suggested hiding them somewhere, such as the engine compartment\u2026 to avoid detection should they get pulled over.\u201d<\/p>\n
Martin, who had a tattoo of Bieber on his leg and had tried to contact the singer repeatedly without success, subsequently told police that P.L. and M.S. \u201cwere not the ultimate targets in the plot.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr Martin indicated that their ultimate target was J.B.,\u201d said the affidavit, adding that, when police searched the car they found a pair of Fiskar Durasharp pruning shears and information on their intended victims.<\/p>\n
Staake and Ruane are currently awaiting extradition to New Mexico, officials said.<\/p>\n
The 18-year-old Canadian star\u2019s managers said they took Bieber\u2019s safety seriously. \u201cWe take every precaution to protect and ensure the safety of Justin and his fans,\u201d a management official<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{{US police have foiled a plot to kill teen pop idol Justin Bieber and possibly castrate him with pruning shears, with the alleged killer promised $2,500 per testicle, legal documents revealed Thursday.}} Mark Staake, 41, and his nephew, Tanner Ruane, were arrested in Vermont and New York last month and face charges in New Mexico […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-4630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-homenews","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4630\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4630"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=4630"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=4630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}