On the evening of August 13, 2015, after a day spent enjoying the Italian summer with his fiancée at a beach near Genoa, Cristian Provvisionato, a stocky 42-year-old bodyguard with an affable look, noticed he'd missed a call from his boss.
"I have an emergency. I need someone to go to Mauritania," Davide Castro, who worked for the Italian private investigations and security firm Vigilar, told the bodyguard, according to Provvisionato.
Castro, 33, promised it would be an easy job. Provvisionato, he said, would simply have to show up to replace another Italian man who had to return home. He would later have to escort a technician from another company called Wolf Intelligence to a meeting with local government representatives to showcase a product that would allow Mauritania to spy on internet and cellphone users.
"Anyway, don't worry," Castro later reassured Provvisionato in an email. "I'm always here for you and you're not alone."
The job would pay well: 1,500 euros per week plus a 3,000 euro bonus if the sale was successful. And despite being in a little-known African country, it seemed like a no-brainer—so much so that Provvisionato's partner recalls prodding him, jokingly saying "if you don't go, I'll go myself."
Little did Provvisionato know what was promised to be an easy job would turn into a nightmare.
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