Underground_Network
March 6th, 2008, 04:07 PM
'Merchant of Death' captured
Manhunt ends as Russian who inspired Hollywood is captured in Thailand
The Associated Press
updated 1:44 p.m. ET, Thurs., March. 6, 2008
BANGKOK, Thailand - An alleged arms dealer from Russia dubbed the "Merchant of Death" was arrested Thursday in Thailand.
Police Lt. Gen. Pongpat Chayapan said Viktor Bout was detained at U.S. request in a Bangkok hotel amid allegations that he supplied Colombian rebels with guns and explosives.
Bout was widely believed to be a model for the arms dealer portrayed by Nicholas Cage in the 2005 movie "Lord of War."
He has long been accused of breaking U.N. embargoes by supplying weapons to conflicts in Africa, and he is the subject of financial sanctions by the United States and a U.N. travel ban.
Police Col. Petcharat Sengchai told reporters that Bout was wanted on charges of "procuring weapons and explosives for Colombian rebels" known as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. The leftist FARC has been fighting Colombia's government for more than four decades, and funds itself largely through the cocaine trade and kidnapping for ransom.
The arrest follows a month-long manhunt. The Thai warrant was based on earlier one issued by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
Six other people, including another Russian, who were with Bout were also detained for interrogation. Thai police received information from the DEA that Bout and another man came to Thailand around January to complete an arms deal with a Latin American rebel group, Sengchai added.
Weapons sent to Afghanistan?
Bout's business, centered around a fleet of transport aircraft owned and operated by several closely held companies, also reportedly involved him in supplying warring parties in Afghanistan before the 2001 fall of the Taliban.
One of his companies also served as a subcontractor involved in transporting U.S. military personnel and private U.S. contractors in Iraq, according to a book about Bout by journalists Douglas Farah and Stephen Braun published last year.
Handcuffed and wearing an orange polo shirt, the burly Bout was presented briefly to reporters at Thai police headquarters. He stared blankly at the bank of television cameras but did not make any comment.
Although Bout, 41, has been investigated by police in several countries, he has never been prosecuted for arms dealing.
He has been accused of trafficking weapons through a series of front companies to war-wracked Central and West Africa since the early 1990s. U.N. reports say he set up a network of more than 50 aircraft around the world, owned by small companies including Bukavu Aviation Transport, Business Air Services and Great Lakes Business Co.
Allegations of FARC ties
A 2007 book about Bout, "Merchant of Death: Money, Guns, Planes, and the Man Who Makes War Possible," says a plane in Bout's fleet made several airdrops of weapons to FARC guerrillas between December 1998 and April 1999.
The book says the flights dropped about 10,000 weapons to the rebels, "enabling them to greatly enhance their military capabilities."
A 2005 report by the human rights group Amnesty International described Bout as "the most prominent foreign businessman" involved in trafficking arms to U.N.-embargoed destinations in Bulgaria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan and other countries.
The report implicated Bout in transferring "very large quantities of arms" from Ukraine that were delivered to Uganda via Tanzania aboard a Greek-registered cargo ship.
Accused of 'blood diamond' links
A U.N. travel ban imposed on Bout that was still current as of last November said he supported former Liberian President Charles Taylor's regime in efforts to destabilize Sierra Leone and gain illicit access to diamonds, which became known as "blood diamonds" for the warring they inspired.
Trade experts have alleged that illicit diamond trading was likely one source of funds for his arms shipments.
In October 2006, President Bush issued an executive order freezing the assets of Bout and several associates and warlords in Congo and barring Americans from doing business with them. They were accused of violating international laws involving targeting of children or violating a ban on sales of military equipment to Congo.
In 2002, Belgium issued an international arrest warrant through Interpol, the international police agency, on charges of money-laundering and criminal conspiracy.
British minister tagged him
Bout won his nickname in November 2000, when Peter Hain, then Britain's Cabinet minister for African affairs, called him "the chief sanctions-buster" flouting U.N. arms embargoes against warring parties in Angola and Sierra Leone and dubbed him "a merchant of death."
Bout is believed to have served in an air transport outfit of the Russian military until about 1991. He built his business on the huge drawdown of weapons and aircraft in the communist Eastern bloc as the Cold War was coming to a close.
Ruslan Pukhov, director of the Moscow-based Center for Strategies and Technologies, described Bout as a rich "adventurist, one of these guys who emerged at the start of the 1990s and started pumping weapons from the former Soviet Union into Africa."
"He is not in the same league as people who make and trade weapons," he said. "He was influential and rich, but only in these vacated markets where countries were under embargo and state intermediaries didn't dare to sell."
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23502822/page/2/
Manhunt ends as Russian who inspired Hollywood is captured in Thailand
The Associated Press
updated 1:44 p.m. ET, Thurs., March. 6, 2008
BANGKOK, Thailand - An alleged arms dealer from Russia dubbed the "Merchant of Death" was arrested Thursday in Thailand.
Police Lt. Gen. Pongpat Chayapan said Viktor Bout was detained at U.S. request in a Bangkok hotel amid allegations that he supplied Colombian rebels with guns and explosives.
Bout was widely believed to be a model for the arms dealer portrayed by Nicholas Cage in the 2005 movie "Lord of War."
He has long been accused of breaking U.N. embargoes by supplying weapons to conflicts in Africa, and he is the subject of financial sanctions by the United States and a U.N. travel ban.
Police Col. Petcharat Sengchai told reporters that Bout was wanted on charges of "procuring weapons and explosives for Colombian rebels" known as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. The leftist FARC has been fighting Colombia's government for more than four decades, and funds itself largely through the cocaine trade and kidnapping for ransom.
The arrest follows a month-long manhunt. The Thai warrant was based on earlier one issued by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
Six other people, including another Russian, who were with Bout were also detained for interrogation. Thai police received information from the DEA that Bout and another man came to Thailand around January to complete an arms deal with a Latin American rebel group, Sengchai added.
Weapons sent to Afghanistan?
Bout's business, centered around a fleet of transport aircraft owned and operated by several closely held companies, also reportedly involved him in supplying warring parties in Afghanistan before the 2001 fall of the Taliban.
One of his companies also served as a subcontractor involved in transporting U.S. military personnel and private U.S. contractors in Iraq, according to a book about Bout by journalists Douglas Farah and Stephen Braun published last year.
Handcuffed and wearing an orange polo shirt, the burly Bout was presented briefly to reporters at Thai police headquarters. He stared blankly at the bank of television cameras but did not make any comment.
Although Bout, 41, has been investigated by police in several countries, he has never been prosecuted for arms dealing.
He has been accused of trafficking weapons through a series of front companies to war-wracked Central and West Africa since the early 1990s. U.N. reports say he set up a network of more than 50 aircraft around the world, owned by small companies including Bukavu Aviation Transport, Business Air Services and Great Lakes Business Co.
Allegations of FARC ties
A 2007 book about Bout, "Merchant of Death: Money, Guns, Planes, and the Man Who Makes War Possible," says a plane in Bout's fleet made several airdrops of weapons to FARC guerrillas between December 1998 and April 1999.
The book says the flights dropped about 10,000 weapons to the rebels, "enabling them to greatly enhance their military capabilities."
A 2005 report by the human rights group Amnesty International described Bout as "the most prominent foreign businessman" involved in trafficking arms to U.N.-embargoed destinations in Bulgaria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan and other countries.
The report implicated Bout in transferring "very large quantities of arms" from Ukraine that were delivered to Uganda via Tanzania aboard a Greek-registered cargo ship.
Accused of 'blood diamond' links
A U.N. travel ban imposed on Bout that was still current as of last November said he supported former Liberian President Charles Taylor's regime in efforts to destabilize Sierra Leone and gain illicit access to diamonds, which became known as "blood diamonds" for the warring they inspired.
Trade experts have alleged that illicit diamond trading was likely one source of funds for his arms shipments.
In October 2006, President Bush issued an executive order freezing the assets of Bout and several associates and warlords in Congo and barring Americans from doing business with them. They were accused of violating international laws involving targeting of children or violating a ban on sales of military equipment to Congo.
In 2002, Belgium issued an international arrest warrant through Interpol, the international police agency, on charges of money-laundering and criminal conspiracy.
British minister tagged him
Bout won his nickname in November 2000, when Peter Hain, then Britain's Cabinet minister for African affairs, called him "the chief sanctions-buster" flouting U.N. arms embargoes against warring parties in Angola and Sierra Leone and dubbed him "a merchant of death."
Bout is believed to have served in an air transport outfit of the Russian military until about 1991. He built his business on the huge drawdown of weapons and aircraft in the communist Eastern bloc as the Cold War was coming to a close.
Ruslan Pukhov, director of the Moscow-based Center for Strategies and Technologies, described Bout as a rich "adventurist, one of these guys who emerged at the start of the 1990s and started pumping weapons from the former Soviet Union into Africa."
"He is not in the same league as people who make and trade weapons," he said. "He was influential and rich, but only in these vacated markets where countries were under embargo and state intermediaries didn't dare to sell."
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23502822/page/2/