Big-Time Arms Dealer Arrested in Thailand: Russian Helps FARC

BANGKOK, Thailand — One of the world’s most notorious arms dealers, Victor Bout, was arrested in a hotel here Thursday in connection with the procurement of weapons for the Colombian FARC rebels, the Thai police said.

His arrest came a few days after a Colombian military raid into Ecuador on Saturday, during which the Colombian Army obtained a computer laptop belonging to a senior FARC commander. It was not immediately clear whether the two events were related.

Mr. Bout, a former Russian military officer with arms smuggling connections in international conflicts spanning many years, was said to be the inspiration for the film, “Lord of War,�? starring Nicolas Cage.

The arrest came on a tip from the United States Drug Enforcement Agency that Mr. Bout was traveling to Thailand, said Police Col. Petcharat Sengchai of the Crime Suppression Division, who led the arresting team.

Colonel Petcharat said Mr. Bout, who is a Russian citizen, was wanted for "the procurement of weapons and explosives for Colombian rebels," referring to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

The FARC is a leftist insurgency that has been fighting Colombia’s government for decades and is known to fund itself partly through the cocaine trade.

The police said Mr. Bout had been arrested at noon at the Silom Sofitel Hotel at noon and was being held in the offices of the Crime Suppression Division.

Mr. Bout had been in Thailand since January, and was regularly changing hotels, according to a security analyst in Bangkok who had spoken to the Thai authorities and who spoke on the condition of anonymity. He was arrested during a meeting with someone from Russia or Eastern Europe, the analyst said.

American counter-terrorism officials were interrogating him. The analyst said the Thai government was anxious to get him out of the country, and the Americans were anxious to get him as well.

An Amnesty International report in 2005 called Mr. Bout "the most prominent foreign businessman" involved in trafficking arms to nations that are embargoed by the United Nations, including Bulgaria, Slovakia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan.

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

Mr. Bout has been selling arms to the FARC for the last year to 18 months, according to Brian Johnson-Thomas, an arms trafficking researcher in Britain. He said the weapons were mostly AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades, and possibly some surface-to-air missiles.

The weapons came from Central Asia, mostly Kazakhstan, Mr. Johnson-Thomas said. He said Mr. Bout has over 40 planes, and that many of them are registered in Equitorial Guinea.

The arms get to the FARC via Paraguay, then through Argentina and Uruguay, said Mr. Johnson-Thomas, who has just returned from a research trip to South America.

Bout’s planes “don’t return empty,�? he said. They return to Africa loaded with drugs, which are then shipped into Europe. "It’s drugs in, drugs out," he said.

Seth Mydans reported from Bangkok, Thailand, and Ray Bonner reported from London. Graham Bowley contributed reporting from New York.

By Medellin Traveler on Mar 6, 2008, 08:49 in Politics & the war.

romy says on Apr 9, 2008, 11:57:

Thais Drop Charges Against Arms Suspect (http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gNURV-EuOx57Uj9dL7RCzePHs33gD8VUA84...)
By SUTIN WANNABOVORN – 7 hours ago

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) — Thai police dropped charges Wednesday against a Russian man accused of being one of the world's most prolific black market arms dealers, saying they will proceed with hearings to extradite him to the United States.

Viktor Bout, a 41-year-old Russian, faces several counts in the U.S. of "conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization" for allegedly arranging to sell and transport weapons, including portable surface-to-air missiles to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

Lt. Gen. Phongphan Chayaphan, chief of the Thai police's Crime Suppression Division, said Bout would remain detained pending extradition hearings, which he estimated would take 60 days.

Bout's lawyer in Thailand, Lak Nitiwatanavichan, said he would fight extradition.

Bout, who has been called the "Merchant of Death," was arrested March 6 at a Bangkok hotel after a sting operation in which undercover U.S. agents pretended to be arms buyers from the Colombian rebels.

He could face 15 years in prison on the U.S. charge. Thai authorities had held him on a charge of using the country as a base to negotiate a weapons deal with terrorists, for which he could have been imprisoned for 10 years.

Regarded as one of the world's most wanted arms traffickers, Bout's alleged list of customers since the early 1990s includes African dictators and warlords, including former Liberian President Charles Taylor, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and both sides of the civil war in Angola. In the process, he has been accused of breaking several U.N. arms embargoes.

Bout, who was purportedly the model for the arms dealer portrayed by Nicolas Cage in the 2005 movie "Lord of War," has denied the current allegations against him and any criminal activities in the past.

Bout's lawyer Lak said the U.S. charges were political in nature and did not represent a criminal case because the Colombian government is fighting the FARC rebels over differences of ideology. He also said the conflict in Colombia is outside of U.S. jurisdiction.

Extradition treaties between nations generally do not allow turning over suspects in cases of a political nature.

Lak said the Thai attorney general's office was awaiting more documents from the United States before officially forwarding the extradition case to court.