 Police say 41-year-old Mark Staake (LEFT) and his 23-year-old nephew Tanner Ruane (RIGHT) were part of a murder-for-hire plot to mutilate and kill Canadian pop star Justin Bieber. In an email to the Star, Melissa Victor, vice president of media and artist relations at Island Def Jam Music Group, said: “We take every precaution to protect and insure the safety of Justin and his fans.” 
 
 Justin Bieber Sean Kilpatrick/THE CANADIAN PRESS file photo In an email to the Star, Melissa Victor, vice president of media and artist relations at Island Def Jam Music Group, said: “We take every precaution to protect and insure the safety of Justin and his fans.” 
 
 Jeff Green and Shawna Richer 
 
 Staff Reporters 
 
 
 
 WARNING: THIS STORY CONTAINS GRAPHIC DETAILS 
 
 Nothing seemed out of the ordinary when teen pop star Justin Bieber played two sold-out nights at Madison Square Garden in New York on Nov. 28 and 29. A police affidavit alleges that two prison inmates and a nephew were hatching a plot to murder Bieber and his director of security while the singer was in New York for those shows. Details of the grisly plan — which involved strangling two other victims with a paisley tie and then castrating them — were revealed Wednesday in an affidavit for arrest obtained by New Mexico State Police. According to the affidavit, the plan was hatched behind bars after inmate Dana Martin was transferred from a Florida prison to the Southern New Mexico Corrections Facility in April. He allegedly recruited Mark Aaron Staake, 41, a fellow inmate at the time, after Staake noticed the tattoo on his leg. Martin requested the two men kill four people in two separate attacks, according to the affidavit. Oddly, the details were spilled on Nov. 20, when Martin asked to speak to police, telling them Staake (who had been released on probation on Oct. 22) and his nephew, Tanner Ruane, 23, had been planning to commit the first two murders, neither of them Bieber. The affidavit suggests the first two victims were to be castrated — with a total of $2,500 US paid to Staake per testicle. The affidavit said this perceived slight and Martin's belief he was a nobody in prison led him to start plotting to kidnap and murder J.B. 
 
 Martin told investigators "he was seeking a measure of notoriety so that there would be people outside of prison who would know who he ... Mark Staake, 41, and his nephew Tanner Ruane, 23, were arrested in late November, New Mexico state police said in a release, after an investigation found they might be plotting to commit murder. McDonald declined to speculate on why Martin revealed the plot to police when he did, but a pair of phone conversations on Nov. 19 hint at a plot unravelling. Staake and Ruane "are being investigated for their part in the criminal conspiracy to locate and murder two individuals in Vermont," according to the Vermont police statement. However, it does not say the third victim, believed to be Bieber, was to be castrated, as was previously reported. In the recorded conversation, Ruane tells Martin that Staake was going to “handle the whole putting down of the ‘dogs’ and I (Mr. Ruane) was going to go ‘snip, snip.’” 
 
 Martin went to police the next day and Ruane was arrested Nov. 26 by New York State Police, who had been on the lookout for the BMW. (Evan Agostini/Invision/Associated Press) 
 
 Two men from Albuquerque, N.M., may have been plotting to kill singer Justin Bieber and his bodyguard, a New Mexico state police investigation has revealed. The alleged plot was revealed to police by Dana Martin, 45, a convicted killer who says he hired two men for a hit while in state prison.
– One of the downfalls of being an international pop star beloved by tweens everywhere: Sometimes you end up the target of two would-be assassins hired by a convicted killer to murder you. That's what happened to Justin Bieber, police say. CBC News and the Toronto Star have details of the bizarre plot: Dana Martin, 45, was both the mastermind and the person who alerted police to the plot. He says he hired New Mexico men Mark Staake, 41, and Staake's nephew, Tanner Ruane, 23, to kill four people. Staake and Ruane were arrested late last month, but authorities just discovered Bieber may have been a target. Martin wanted all four of the victims, which were to include both Bieber and his bodyguard, strangled with a paisley tie. Martin is currently in state prison for murder; he killed his victims in a similar fashion. Martin wanted two of the victims castrated, and was willing to pay $2,500 per testicle, but Bieber is not believed to be one of those he wanted castrated. Martin was obsessed with the singer, having written him letters and gotten a Bieber tattoo on his leg. He got upset when Bieber never responded to him. If the whole thing sounds like a macabre publicity stunt, there's reason for that. Martin told police "he was seeking a measure of notoriety so that there would be people outside of prison who would know who he ... was." Oh, and he had nothing to lose: He's serving a sentence of 988 years and change.