Canadian pop sensation Justin Bieber was allegedly the target of a kidnapping and murder plot which originated behind bars, police say, and would have involved him being strangled and castrated.

Convicted murderer and rapist Dana Martin, who is currently serving a life sentence for the 2000 death of a 15-year old girl, apparently has a massive obsession with Bieber and even has a tattoo of the singer on his leg. When he met Mark Staake in a state prison in Las Cruces, New Mexico, he offered to pay him a handsome reward to carry out the grisly kidnapping plan for him once Staake was released. Staake’s nephew, Tanner Ruane, was also involved.

The duo were to carry out their orders after one of Bieber’s Madison Square Garden shows in New York, and were also given instructions to kill two of Martin’s enemies in Vermont, leaving them strangled with a paisley necktie as per Martin’s old calling card. Ruane’s task, Martin said, was to castrate their victims. The reward for each testicle? $2,500.

Luckily for everyone involved, Staake was arrested in Vermont on an outstanding warrant before the murders could take place, and Ruane, who was let go, ultimately became the group’s undoing when he made contact with Martin and told him he wouldn’t be able to carry out the killings on his own. The phone calls were recorded and Ruane was taken into custody, where police found weapons–including pruning shears–on his person. New Mexico police have yet to make an official statement on the sequence of events, but Lt. Robert McDonald says that Staake and Ruane will be brought home.

“Paperwork is in the process to get them extradited back to New Mexico,” said McDonald.