In 2008, arms dealer Viktor Bout was captured in Bangkok, Thailand, after falling into an elaborate trap by US agents posing as members of the FARC.
The case of the ‘merchant of death’, who was born in Tajikistan -when it was Soviet territory- and speaks six languages, inspired the successful film ‘The Lord of War’, starring Nicolas Cage and released three years before the capture in Thailand.
(It may interest you: Russia says that there is still no agreement with the US on the exchange of detainees)
Currently, the United States would be willing to hand him over to Russia in exchange for the latter country handing over other American prisoners. This is the story of Bout.
Viktor Bout, 55, is said to have been the main supplier of weapons in the Sierra Leone war, but Angola, Liberia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo were also the territory of his operations. Like Bosnia, Afghanistan and Colombia.
He is also accused of having helped, among others, the terrorist group Al Qaeda and the Taliban.
The history of the ‘merchant of death’
Although little is known about the “war merchant’s” past, it appears that he was born in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, and attended the Military Institute of Foreign Languages, a secondary school for Russian military intelligence.
In an article published by EL TIEMPO in 2008, when he was captured, it was reported that Bout’s fortune began to take shape after the end of the Cold War.
At that time, he decided to use his knowledge to get rich with cargo airlines that he used as a front to sell weapons to countries in conflict, mainly in Africa, where he used to exchange weapons for diamonds.
The film ‘The Lord of War’ was based on a book about Bout’s activities entitled ‘Merchant of Death’, which was written by American journalists Douglas Farah and Stephen Braunn.
This text maintains that Bout dropped several loads of weapons from the air to the FARC guerrillas –mainly AK-47 rifles– between December 1998 and April 1999, and that they would be the same shipments from Montesinos.
This is how his capture was achieved in Thailand
Bout was detained in a luxury hotel in the Thai capital after meeting with two DEA agents (United States Anti-Narcotics Office) who posed as members of the Farc, one of his clients.
At the meeting, Bout offered the alleged guerrilla delegates AK-47 rifles, ammunition, surface-to-air projectiles and other weapons.
The deal ended when, to his surprise, the buyers identified themselves as DEA agents and arrested him. Following his capture in March 2008, Bout was held in a high-security prison near Bangkok. The charge he faced was “supplying arms and explosives to the Colombian rebels,” according to the Colombian police at the time.
The process to achieve extradition was uneventful. At first, the Thai justice system rejected Bout’s extradition to the United States, arguing that the FARC was not considered a terrorist organization in Thailand.
Russia later objected to the detention, arguing that the prisoner was the victim of “undue pressure.”
Bout was eventually transferred to New York. In 2012, from a court in that city, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison. “Viktor Bout has been enemy number one of the international arms trade for many years, fueling some of the most violent conflicts in the world,” Preet Bharara, who was a federal prosecutor in Manhattan, said that year.
Moscow has claimed the trafficker on different occasions, but without success. Now, although the United States and Russia have not reached an agreement, the extradition would be closer to happening.
Apparently, the US would be willing to hand him over in exchange for basketball player Brittney Griner, accused of drug trafficking and who has pleaded guilty but has no intention of committing a crime. and Paul Whelan, former member of the FF. MM. from united states He was arrested in 2018 in Russia, where he is accused of espionage in Russia.
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