A former member of the Special Forces, once part of a high-stakes mercenary group earning $1.5 million monthly, has been accused of plotting to assassinate Serbia’s president.
Daniel Corbett was apprehended in Belgrade back in 2018, found with a firearm that had its serial number obliterated. Local media speculated that his presence in Serbia was linked to a plan to eliminate President Aleksandar Vučić.
After his arrest with three Serbian nationals in an apartment, the ex-Navy SEAL spent 18 months in a Serbian detention facility.
Serbian authorities quickly suggested that Corbett’s presence indicated “something was going on,” with the president remarking that Corbett surely did not intend to “shoot fish in the Danube.”
However, by June 2019, Corbett was cleared of all charges concerning the weapon due to insufficient evidence.
This situation unfolds as Corbett’s former mercenary group, Spear, faces legal troubles of its own, with a former Yemeni House of Representatives member filing a lawsuit alleging an assassination attempt against him.
The group’s leader, San Diego man Abraham Golan, allegedly worked on a 23-man “kill list” to wipe out targets for the UAE government, the lawsuit claims.
Golan, Issac Gilmore and Dale Comstock are the three defendants in the new lawsuit. Corbett is not mentioned in the documents.
Corbett, who was said to be part of SEAL Team 6 who hunted Osama Bin Laden, was photographed with Golan and wrote a book about his time as a mercenary in the unit.
Corbett, who also worked on the daring rescue of Captain Phillips from Somali pirates in 2009, mentioned his time in Belgrade in his 2024 book “American Mercenary.”
One of the subtitles in the book is “F***ing Serbia, man.” A blurb adds: “Things change in 2017 when Corbett is arrested on a job in Belgrade, Serbia.
“When the authorities discover he’s a Navy SEAL, they imagine the worst: he’s in Belgrade to assassinate the Serbian president.
“They throw Corbett in jail, where he spends the next 18 months making international headlines and fighting for his freedom in a kangaroo court.”
Last year he opened up further about the incident, telling the Mike Drop podcast: “All of a sudden the front door flies open… and there’s a 20-year-old kid with a pistol at my head.
“I can hear the spring in the magazine shaking, his fingers on the trigger, and I was just like woah woah woah.”
He later continued: “A big cop came out and said ‘oh you’re here for Vučić’, and I said ‘who, no’ and he asked ‘are you DEA, CIA, what’re you doing.’ And I said ‘I’m just hanging out, I’m a private contractor’.’”
He added: “He said ‘you’re here to assassinate the president,’ and I said ‘no’. He then said ‘all right bro I totally believe you but the media already has it so it’s already in the news’.”
Corbett was acquitted of all major charges in June 2019.
He was asked to leave the country immediately. Meanwhile, in what was reported as an unrelated incident, his lawyer was gunned down in a gangland-style hit.
Golan set up Spear in Rancho Santa Fe San Diego in August 2015 along with fellow former Navy SEAL Gilmore.
The two pitched and reached an agreement with the UAE to carry out “targeted assassinations” on the empire’s behalf, the lawsuit claims.
In return, Spear would allegedly be paid $1.5 million a month plus bonuses for successful killings.
“There was a targeted assassination program in Yemen. I was running it. We did it. It was sanctioned by the UAE within the coalition,” Golan allegedly said, according to the complaint.
The complaint alleges that once the deal with the UAE was reached, the two recruited former members of the US military, a key point in their pitch to the UAE, including Comstock, a former member of US Army Special Forces, who was paid $40,000 a month plus bonuses to run the killing team.
The group was assembled by December. They allegedly loaded on to a chartered jet at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey and flew to Yemen with body armor and specialized tools to prepare explosives, according to the suit.
Per the lawsuit, their main target was Anssaf Ali Mayo, who was at the top of the list to eliminate because he was a member of the al-Islah party, Yemen’s second-largest political group, which is linked to the UAE’s enemy the Muslim Brotherhood.
The alleged plan was to set off explosives at the al-Islah political party headquarters in Aden, where he worked, and kill off any survivors with small firearms, the complaint says.
Drone footage in December 2015 captured the dramatic assassination attempt. The team drove up to the headquarters where Comstock allegedly placed an explosive charge loaded with shrapnel and detonated the device.
A huge explosion rocked the building, shots were fired, and then the footage showed a second explosion caused by a booby trapped SUV designed to add to the destruction.
“I was gonna try to open the door, throw a couple hand grenades, and then just go in there and shoot everyone,” Comstock said, according to the lawsuit.
Mayo, had been told his life was in danger and fled moments before the explosion ripped through the building and survived.
He claims he suffered “psychological and emotional trauma” from the event and now lives in exile in Saudi Arabia.
The members of Spear have been contacted for comment. Mayo could not be reached for further comment.
