Report: Green Beret killed in Mali discovered Navy SEALs had been stealing money

Before Staff Sgt. Logan Melgar died in Mali on June 4, the 34-year-old Green Beret discovered that the two members of SEAL Team Six now suspected of murdering him had been stealing money from a fund used to pay local informants, five members of the special-operations community told The Daily Beast's Spencer Ackerman and Kevin Maurer.

Melgar had told his wife he had a bad feeling about two of the partners he was working with — the SEALs — and he would tell her more when he returned home, one official told The Daily Beast. The SEALs had offered to start giving Melgar money from the funds, used in Mali to pay informants providing important intelligence to security forces, and he said no, two sources said.

Military investigators are now trying to determine what exactly happened to Melgar the day he died. The officials said an altercation started at 5 a.m., and Melgar ended up losing consciousness. The SEALs tried to open an airway in his throat, and they drove him to a clinic, but he was dead on arrival, his cause of death determined to be asphyxiation. Top officials became suspicious when the SEALs said Melgar was drunk but his autopsy came back showing no drugs or alcohol in his system, a former U.S. Africa Command official told The Daily Beast. The Navy Criminal Investigative Service would not comment for the story, only confirming that the investigation is taking place. Read more about the investigation at The Daily Beast.

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