Russian Arms Dealer Arrested in Thailand

[Spee]

Anyone have any additional details??

http://my.earthlink.net/article/int?guid=2...80306-823921374

[taxexile]

Russian Arms Dealer Nabbed in Thailand

By AMBIKA AHUJA – AP - 1 hour ago

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) — One of the world's most notorious arms dealers was arrested Thursday in Bangkok on allegations that he supplied Colombian rebels with arms and explosives, Thai police said.

Russian Viktor Bout was arrested in his hotel room in the capital, Bangkok, on a warrant issued by a Thai court, said Police Lt. Gen. Pongpat Chayapan, head of the Crime Suppression Bureau. The warrant stemmed from an earlier one issued by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, he said.

A U.S. Embassy spokesman "congratulated" Thai police for the arrest but could not provide details about the role U.S. officials played in it.

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 Forced 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 kidnaps for ransom and political ends.

Bout, a murky figure rarely seen in public, has also been accused of trafficking weapons to Central and West Africa since the early 1990s. United Nations reports say he set up a network of more than 50 aircraft around the world and trade experts have said the illicit diamond trade was likely one source of funds for his smuggled arms shipments.

Although Bout has been investigated by police in several countries, he has never been prosecuted for arms dealing.

A 2005 report by Amnesty International, a Britain-based human rights watchdog, alleged Bout was "the most prominent foreign businessman" involved in trafficking arms to UN-embargoed destinations from Bulgaria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan and other countries.

The report also implicated Bout in transferring "very large quantities of arms" from Ukraine that were delivered to Uganda via Tanzania aboard a Greek-registered cargo ship.

In 2003, the U.N. imposed an arms embargo on the provinces of North and South Kivu and the Ituri regions of eastern Congo, and also on groups that were not a part of the 2003 peace agreement for the region.

Hosted by Copyright © 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[BigSnake]

Good to have him off the street enough fool out there with gun, enough said.

[sriracha john]

Police nab Russian suspected weapons dealer

Thai police Thursday arrested a Russian national wanted abroad for trafficking weapons to Colombia.

Crime Suppression Division police announced the arrest of Viktor Anatoljevigech, 41, allegedly a former KGB agent who faces charges of smuggling weapons to the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.)

He was picked up by police at the Sofitel Hotel in Bangkok this afternoon.

- DPA

============================================================================

For those on dial-up or connection woes, the OP's article is posted here in its entirety, which contains a number of story-specific diffferences:

Russian Arms Dealer Arrested in Thailand

BANGKOK, Thailand - A Russian arms dealer who has been accused of breaking U.N. arms embargoes by supplying weapons to African conflicts has been arrested in Bangkok, Thai police said.

Police Lt. Gen. Pongpat Chayapan, head of the Crime Suppression Bureau, said Viktor Bout was arrested on a warrant issued by a Thai court after a request from the United States based on a warrant from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Details of the charges against Bout were not immediately available.

Bout allegedly has been trafficking weapons to Central and West Africa since the early 1990s.

- Associated Press

=============================================================================

*please PM a mod to have this moved to the News Clipping Forum*

*might I proffer a slight thread title modification to read* :

Russian Arms Dealer Arrested in Thailand

[Maigo6]

The Americans want him arrested and locked up, because if anyone is going to sell weapons to 'two bit dictators' it's going to be the Americans.

Exactly right Lucifer, Usa , Britain, France, Russia and Germany will be quite happy, now their own government employed men will sell arms to any barsteward that wants to pay.

Edited March 6, 2008 by Maigo6

[Maigo6]

Way I see it is like the Drug Trade, goverments warn of the dangers of drugs, handing down massive Jail sentences and even death sentences to drug dealers, yet those same governments deal drugs that are taxed by them on a massive scale, like Alcohol and Tobacco that are responsible for Millions of deaths every year.

Same with Arms dealers, it's OK for Governments to do it, but not an individual.

Edited March 6, 2008 by Maigo6

[AlexLah]

Dammit!!!!!

Agent 137, move to plan B!!!

[Pierrot]

So there are good news, when one looks for them.

From BBC International :

Viktor Bout - who has been dubbed the "merchant of death" - was picked up by police at a luxury hotel in Bangkok.

Thai police acted on a warrant issued by the US, which accuses Mr Bout of supplying arms to Colombian rebels.

He has also been accused of breaking UN embargoes on arms sales to many countries from central Asia to Africa but has never been prosecuted.

Mr Bout, 41, is said to have graduated from Moscow's military institute in the early 1990s. According to a 2007 book about him - entitled Merchant of Death - Money, Guns, Planes and the Man Who Makes War Possible - he set up a network of companies using redundant Soviet military planes.

[gbt71fa]

The Americans want him arrested and locked up, because if anyone is going to sell weapons to 'two bit dictators' it's going to be the Americans.

once again, somebody who can't think for themselves and and has the habit of then talking outloud. If you are going to be stupid please do it on your own time....

[A_Traveller]

For those who saw the film Lord of War, the general view is that the storyline was heavily based on Bout's life.

There's a rumour doing the rounds that he was caught in a sting operation run by the US.

Regards

PS He was given the sobriquet 'Merchant of Death' by Peter Hain, a former UK FCO minister, after reading a UN report on his activities.

Report on Angolan Sanctions Monitors 2000

Edited March 6, 2008 by A_Traveller

[Maigo6]

The Americans want him arrested and locked up, because if anyone is going to sell weapons to 'two bit dictators' it's going to be the Americans.

once again, somebody who can't think for themselves and and has the habit of then talking outloud. If you are going to be stupid please do it on your own time....

So you're saying the US or it's Allies don't sell arms to dictatorial countries?

Edited March 6, 2008 by Maigo6

[Johpa]

For those who saw the film Lord of War, the general view is that the storyline was heavily based on Bout's life.

He wouldn't sell many arms in Thailand unless he was willing to take fish heads or frozen chickens in trade.

So speaking of films about death merchants, perhaps mention of the documentary Darwin's Nightmare should be made here where such merchants are indeed noted to trade fish for arms in Africa, perhaps managed by this Mr Bouts as the planes used are all Russian. But Thailand is spared such assaults as the arms trade within LOS is controlled by the local military and others need not apply. See Achaan Pasuk's Guns, book Girls, Gambling, Ganja for details.

[Maizefarmer]

Everyone has being after him for years - Jean Peirre Bemba's big buddy.

He live's Sharjah UAE - does anyone know how he came here to Thailand - his own personal plane or was it a shceduled airline?

[ilyushin]

Probably flew on one of those Antonov 12 cargo planes we see coming and going thru BKK. The Thai TV footage showed him looking like he was rode hard and pulled thru a keyhole.

[LaoPo]

Thailand holds 'top arms dealer'

Viktor Bout is arrested by Thai police (6 March 2008) Mr Bout is alleged to have sold weapons in many countries

A Russian man suspected of being one of the world's biggest illegal arms dealers has been arrested in Thailand.

Viktor Bout - who has been dubbed the "merchant of death" - was picked up by police at a luxury hotel in Bangkok.

The Thai authorities acted on a warrant issued by the US, which accuses Mr Bout of supplying arms to Colombian rebels.

He has also been accused of breaking UN embargoes on arms sales to many countries from central Asia to Africa, but has never been prosecuted.

When Belgium and Interpol issued an international arrest warrant for him in 2002, Mr Bout returned to Russia, where he was protected from extradition by the country's constitution.

Deportation

Lt Gen Pongpat Chayapan, head of the Thai Crime Suppressino Bureau, said Mr Bout was arrested at a hotel in Bangkok shortly after he arrived in Thailand while attempting to "procure weapons for Colombia's Farc rebels".

We will take legal action against him here, before deporting him to face trial in another country Lt Gen Pongpat Chayapan, Thai Crime Suppressino Bureau

The left-wing Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) have been seeking to overthrow the Colombian government for more than four decades.

"We have followed him for several months. He just came back to Thailand today," Gen Pongpat said.

"We will take legal action against him here, before deporting him to face trial in another country, likely the US."

The US warrant stemmed from an earlier one issued by the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), he said.

Unconfirmed US media reports say Mr Bout was arrested during negotiations to sell weapons in a sting orchestrated by a DEA special operations unit.

A spokesman for the US embassy in Bangkok congratulated Thai police on the arrest, but could not provide any details about the possible role of US officials.

The US treasury department imposed sanctions on Mr Bout's businesses in October 2006, seizing his fleet of cargo planes and freezing many of his assets.

UN embargoes

Mr Bout, 41, is said to have graduated from Moscow's military institute in the early 1990s and was a major in the Soviet KGB.

According to a 2007 book about him - entitled Merchant of Death - Money, Guns, Planes and the Man Who Makes War Possible - he set up a network of companies using redundant Soviet military planes.

A 2005 report by the human rights group, Amnesty International, said Mr Bout was "the most prominent foreign businessman" breaking UN embargoes on arms sales to countries such as Bulgaria, Slovakia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan.

He has also been accused of supplying weapons to supporters of former Liberian President Charles Taylor, rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Taleban in Afghanistan and even al-Qaeda during the 1990s.

Mr Bout's life is believed to have been the inspiration for Nicolas Cage's character in the 2005 film, Lord of War.

Although he has been investigated by the authorities in several countries, Mr Bout has never been prosecuted for arms dealing.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7281297.stm

Profile: Viktor Bout:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7281885.stm

LaoPo

[funfun]

well he dosent look that bothered,

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/9BE...E6A8330BB0F.htm

well if ya gonna get nicked ya really want that to happen in a place where you can negotiate??

maybe he knows somthings gonna be ok?

[radioguy1450]

The Americans want him arrested and locked up, because if anyone is going to sell weapons to 'two bit dictators' it's going to be the Americans.

I was thinking the exact same thing. What balls my country has. We deal weapons all over the world --help rebels overthrow governments, deal to Saddam Hussein and Bin Laden...and then we have the nerve to want to put this guy on trial????

My government has an amazing combination of brass balls and no shame.

[LaoPo]

The Americans want him arrested and locked up, because if anyone is going to sell weapons to 'two bit dictators' it's going to be the Americans.

I was thinking the exact same thing. What balls my country has. We deal weapons all over the world --help rebels overthrow governments, deal to Saddam Hussein and Bin Laden...and then we have the nerve to want to put this guy on trial????

My government has an amazing combination of brass balls and no shame.

Not just the US...

It's the hypocrite attitude of the world's leading -weapon producing- countries.

Countries have a 'license to kill', produce and sell weapons to third parties and other nations......private people/groups don't have such rights...they're trash....Countries are not...they are civilized....

LaoPo

[geriatrickid]

Before people piss all over the USA, the arms this fellow was selling violated the UN embargo on arms sales to the Congo. The impetus came from multiple countries with which hold political views hostile to US foreign policy.China, South Africa, and several south american and african countries all wanted this guy shut down.

As much as some of you may hate the americans, their arms sales are probably the cleanest in the world as they are open to public scrutiny. The reality of the arms trade is that almost all of the weapons in the hands of despots today are sourced from Russia, China, India and several quasi european nations.

As for dragging up the arms to Iraq issue, there appears to be collective amnesia because there were questions raised about those sales in Congress. Opponents of the sales were accused of being in cahoots of the "pro-Israel" lobby and discriminating against arabs. Many important arab nations lobbied on behalf of the arms sales and stated that a failure to sell arms to Iraq was a blatant act of discrimination against arabs. Look up the news editorials and coverage at the time. Note too that in the arab world, Iraq was considered the defender of the arab world against expansionist Iranian radicals. Iraq was the country that kept Iran out of the arab countries. Of course, all those lofty statements went out the window when Iraq invaded Kuwait to defend against what Iraq believed was a siphoning off of Iraq's oil reserves. Hindsight is 20-20.

At the time of the arms sales, only two nations were opposed: Iran and Israel. Russia and its former east bloc arms manufacturers were out of the picture because they were supplying Iran. China, Italy and France were okay with the sales because they were (and continue to be) some of the largest buyers of Iraqi oil and were worried about their supplies being disrupted by Iran.

[mouse]

He knows too much to spend any length of time in prison anywhere. Keep watching the news and talk to me in one year.

[Plus]

If what the mouse is suggesting is true, it won't be in the news.

I still can't figure out why he was staying in a Sofitel using his own passport, presumably.

[geriatrickid]

If what the mouse is suggesting is true, it won't be in the news.

I still can't figure out why he was staying in a Sofitel using his own passport, presumably.

This guy was juiced with his connections to Russia and strategic interests in the middle east. My guess is that he really believed he was so well connected & protected that he was untouchable.

[chuck_s]

Congratulations – The U.S. has got their man for selling arms to other countries. Don’t they just hate the completion?

WAR PAYS

[Tony Clifton]

Thailand, a Russian mafia outpost, in cooperation with the boys in brown of course.

[ChiangMaiThai]

The Americans want him arrested and locked up, because if anyone is going to sell weapons to 'two bit dictators' it's going to be the Americans.

Agree completely. And is anyone else a little irked at all the involvement of US agents in high profile arrests in Thailand? Why is it that America automatically assumes that it's duty is to police the world? Maybe it's more about control than duty.

[Tony Clifton]

The Americans want him arrested and locked up, because if anyone is going to sell weapons to 'two bit dictators' it's going to be the Americans.

Agree completely. And is anyone else a little irked at all the involvement of US agents in high profile arrests in Thailand? Why is it that America automatically assumes that it's duty is to police the world? Maybe it's more about control than duty.

Thais can't police themselves to begin with.

[Galong]

So, he could be back out in as few as two years! He "could" be responsible for a bunch of deaths (indirectly)... 2 to 10 years? Boy, that'll teach him... such a harsh lesson... geez.

[Heng]

Too bad they don't arrest the Dusit Thani crew at the same time.

[realmadrid25]

^^can you explain what that means Heng?

[LaoPo]

^^can you explain what that means Heng?

I second that.

ALSO:

The news in Europe is that Thailand wants to bring this chap to court first....

International weapon smuggler faces charges, extradition

Bangkok, March 7 (DPA) Thai police Friday charged Viktor Bout, 41, one of the world’s most notorious weapons traffickers who was arrested here Thursday, with arms dealing in Thailand, postponing his anticipated extradition to the United States. “If he is found guilty of the charge he will spend two to 10 years in jail here,” said Lieutenant-General Adisorn Nonsri, Commissioner of the Central Investigation Bureau.

But other police sources said the charges were expected to be dismissed in court, paving the way for Bout’s extradition to the US where he has been charged with conspiracy to sell weapons worth millions of dollars to Colombian rebels, according to the US Justice Department.

“The US has been chasing this man for almost a decade,” Adisorn told a press conference.

Acting on a tip-off from the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Thai police arrested Bout Thursday at the Sofitel Silom Hotel in Bangkok hours after he arrived from Moscow.

“We have warrants for Mr Bout and we do intend to extradite him,” said Thomas Pasquarello, the Bangkok-based regional director for the DEA. “He’s called the Merchant of Death and the Man of War for a reason,” Pasquarello told the press conference.

In Washington, the Justice Department said Bout’s arrest was the result of close cooperation between US and Thai authorities. The United States said they would seek his extradition.

Adisorn said he had yet to receive an extradition request from Russia. He added that negotiations on Bout’s extradition would need to await the outcome of Thai charges against the Russian.

The charges Bout faces in the US stem from a sting operation in which he and an accomplice allegedly agreed to sell weapons to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which is designated a terrorist organization in the United States.

Bout and Andrew Smulian offered to sell and deliver surface-to-air missiles, helicopters and armour-piercing rocket launchers in a series of phone calls and emails to two DEA informants posing as FARC members.

Bout and Smulian were apparently led to Thailand by the informants to close the deal and were arrested by Thai police, the DEA said.

Thai police are hunting for Smulian, said Adisorn.

A former officer in the Soviet army, Bout has since become one of the most notorious arms dealers in the world, accused of selling weapons to the Taliban in Afghanistan and to the Al Qaeda terrorist network. Bout has denied the past charges.

Bout and Smulian face up to 15 years in prison on charges of conspiracy to provide material support or resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization. The charges were unsealed Thursday in a New York federal court.

The 2005 movie “Lord of War”, starring Nicholas Cage, was supposedly inspired by Bout, and the 2007 book “Merchant of Death - Money, Guns, Planes and the Man Who Makes War Possible” is an expose of his life.

http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/world-...n_10025063.html

LaoPo