John McAfee Freed After Dominican Republic Detention

Controversial security expert John McAfee has been released from custody after he detained earlier this week.

The Associated Press reported that McAfee was arrested by the Dominican Republic Armed Forces while docking his yacht in Puerto Plata. Multiple high-calibre weapons as well as ammunition were reportedly seized during the arrest.

He was apparently detained for four days, but treated well, according to his Twitter account, which for the time of his detention, was managed by campaign manager Rob Loggia-Ramirez.

McAfee Freed

“John, Janice and his crew are alive and in the process of being released from confinement,” his account tweeted. “For their continued safety no more details are being given.”

Another tweet seemed to come directly from the man itself after his release, and showed him embracing his captors.

“Leaving detention (don’t judge my looks – four days of confinement),” he tweeted. “I was well treated. My superiors were friendly and helpful. In spite of the helpful circumstances, we’ve decided to move on. More later.”

The antivirus software pioneer has been on the run since 2012 after his alleged involvement after his neighbour in Belize was shot in the head in San Pedro Town on the island of Ambergris Caye.

Murder suspect

McAfee denied involvement in the murder after police in Belize said they wanted to question McAfee, but the millionaire said that he believed Faull had been killed in error, and the murderers were in fact after McAfee.

This motivated McAfee to change his appearance and go on the run. He hid in Belize jungle for three weeks, but then crossed into neighbouring Guatemala, where he was arrested by immigration officials for entering the country illegally, and eventually deported – but to the US, not Belize.

However Belizean police did not persist in seeking McAfee’s imprisonment for murder, making him a free man.

Presidential candidate

McAfee is once again running for President (although now wanted in the US for failing to file tax returns), and he claims to have hidden data across the world, which would be revealed if he had remained detained, the series of tweets this week said.

Back in 2017 McAfee said his Twitter account, as well as his smartphone, has been hacked after his account began publishing recommendations of lesser-known crypto-currencies in quick succession.

McAfee is now considered something of an expert in crypto-currencies and he heads up the Bitcoin mining operation MGT Capital Investments, which solves complicated mathematical problems to verify transactions in the virtual currency.

Last week McAfee tweeted that his only crime was the failure to file tax returns in the United States, and expressed concern that the CIA was attempting to apprehend him.

And in July 2017, he settled his legal tussle with chip giant Intel over the use of his McAfee name going forward.

The legal battle came after Intel acquired antivirus giant McAfee Associates for $7.6 billion (£6.11bn) in 2010, with the goal of building its security tech into its hardware.

John McAfee was never very happy about Intel’s ownership of his name and the firm he had created, and six years after the acquisition the two began a legal battle over the use of the McAfee name for security products.

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