However, US authorities in cooperation with the Thai police managed to arrest Bout in Bangkok, Thailand, in 2008. The Belgian prosecutor issued an arrest warrant against him in 2002 for money laundering, but a Brussels court dismissed the case against him on limitation grounds. Also, he was identified as an illicit arms dealer in a 2000 UN report about the civil war in Angola. Viktor Bout was widely believed to be an important international arms trafficker involved in transactions with African warlords, dictators in the Middle-East and the Colombian FARC movement. However, in appeals the decision was overturned and Bout was extradited to the US in 2010. A US jury found him guilty on all charges in 2011 and on 5 April 2012, he was sentenced to 25 years imprisonment - the minimum sentence, since the judge had found "no reason to believe Bout would ever have committed the charged crimes". Initially, Bout managed to have the Thai Criminal Court prohibit his extradition due to it being politically motivated. The US charged him with conspiracy to kill US nationals and officials and with conspiring to provide material support to a terrorist organisation (the FARC).
The operation succeeded and Bout was caught by police forces in Thailand. The US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) decided to catch him through a sting operation in which DEA officers posed as FARC fighters and discussed with him a multimillion-dollar weapons transaction supposedly in order to aid the FARC in its fight against the Colombian government and the United States. Viktor Bout, a notorious international arms dealer also known as the Merchant of Death, was alleged of trafficking weapons to several African warlords, dictators in the Middle-East and the Colombian FARC. Memorandum (full judgment not yet available).BorisĬonspiracy, Material support to terrorismĪrms trade, FARC, material support, terrorist organisation, weapons trafficking
This case summary is being revised and will be updated soonĭistrict Court for the Southern District of New York, United States