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Andrew Smulian was arrested soon after. Some reports have him captured in Bangkok along with Bout, though federal prosecutors say he was nabbed in New York City. Facing 15 years in federal prison, Smulian has reportedly agreed to a plea bargain and will testify against Bout.
Braun knew better than to celebrate too much. Bout was far too powerful a figure to simply be trundled onto the next New York–bound flight and shoved into a U.S. prison. Though the Russian was charged by a Thai court with “attempted mass murder” and involvement in international terrorism, his counteroffensive began as soon as he was arrested. His Moscow lawyer called the charges baseless, and Bout’s friends began pressing for his release. The Kremlin looked into requesting extradition and has vowed to monitor the case closely.
Bout is locked up in the maximum-security Bangkok Special Prison, on the outskirts of the city. He shares quarters with as many as 300 foreign prisoners incarcerated for everything from drug smuggling to sex tourism. The Thais are taking no chances with their charge. According to a Bangkok newspaper, a closed-circuit camera monitors him 24 hours a day. The U.S. extradition request is making its way through the Thai courts, postponed by scheduling delays and legal maneuvers from Bout’s defense team. Galeotti, the Russian crime expert, sees several reasons the Russians are pushing for Bout’s release. “He’s been a useful asset,” he says. “Although there’s no real evidence he would be willing to spill the beans about what he has been doing and who his contacts and protectors have been, they would rather avoid the risk. Finally, the Russians are feeling very bullish at the moment, and within the intelligence community they look after their own.”
Douglas Farah, a consultant on terrorism issues and co-author of the Bout biography Merchant of Death, reported on counterterror ismblog.org last June that the Russian ambassador offered Thailand’s prime minister “sweetheart deals on weapons systems, including fighter jets” and discounts on Russian oil and gas exports in return for springing Bout. The Russian embassy in Washington had no comment on the claim.
American efforts to retrieve Bout are being coordinated by the Office of International Affairs (OIA), an obscure division of the Justice Department that handles international extraditions. But some experts believe powerful American players just blocks away from the OIA’s offices in Washington would be happy to see Bout walk. Why? The Russian’s murky connections to the Iraq war. “The reason that the Department of Defense’s contractors used the services of a notorious arms dealer have never been made clear,” says Professor Louise Shelley, director of the Terrorism, Transnational Crime and Corruption Center at George Mason University. “What might be revealed about the reason for his retention is something that some high people in the administration do not want revealed or discussed.”
Bout will most likely leave Thailand soon. If the plane he boards turns east toward Washington, the Russian could face life in prison; if it points west, toward Moscow, Bout is likely to get a pat on the back and “an influential gig handling arms logistics and deliveries for the motherland,” says Stephen Braun (no relation to Mike), co-author of Merchant of Death.
Mike Braun desperately wants to see his nemesis marched into a Manhattan courtroom wearing shackles and an orange jumpsuit. “I want to be there,” he says. “I want to see it.” Bout’s arrest was the capstone to Braun’s 34-year career in law enforcement. In October he left the DEA to become a managing partner at the security and law enforcement consulting company Spectre Group International.
But there are guerrillas and insurgents all over the world who would happily welcome Bout back to their dingy, bullet-pocked bunkers. They have cash and diamonds in hand, and new orders waiting to be filled.
Sidebar: The DEA vs. The Terrorists
Powers granted by Congress after 9/11 allow the DEA to pursue any suspect connected to drugs. Bout used his planes to transport narcotics as well as arms. And of the 43 terrorist organizations listed by the State Department, 19 are believed to have links to the drug trade. That makes them fair game for the DEA. Some of the agency’s targets:
Ahmed Wali Karzai: The brother of Afghan president Hamid Karzai is, according to U.S. Army and Afghan sources, paid off by local drug lords to derail any serious antinarcotics operations in Afghanistan.
The Taliban: The mullahs give farmers an Islamic blessing to grow opium and have pushed Afghanistan to the top of the list of global sources. Afghanistan now supplies more than 90 percent of the world’s heroin base. The Taliban tax the product, bringing in an estimated $800 million a year, some of which is funneled to Al Qaeda.
Hezbollah: The Syria-backed militants get millions of dollars from sympathizers and operatives who sell illegal narcotics around the world.
Hamas: Militants in this Palestinian organization like to publicly burn stacks of cocaine, ecstasy tablets, and hash to show they are enforcing Islamic law in Gaza. A 2007 Department of Justice report, however, accused the group of trafficking heroin in Europe and the Middle East, and selling arms to Mexican drug cartels.
Al Qaeda: Osama bin Laden’s outfit has two main sources of financing: rich Gulf donors and Afghan opium. The 2004 Madrid train bombings were funded by the sale of hash and ecstasy in Spain. The DEA has confirmed it has many open investigations pursuing the connection between Al Qaeda and drug profits.
This article originally appeared in the January 2009 issue of Men’s Journal.
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December 15th, 2008 at 5:14 am
A reader’s closer examination of “Taking Down Arms Dealer Viktor Bout” will find the circumstances surrounding the arrest of Viktor Bout in Bangkok as disturbing as I do.
Bout was obviously arrested extrajudicially, that is, by agents of a foreign government (the US) on the soil of another country (Thailand). Bout has never been accused of any crime in Thailand, where he still languishes in remand prison. Bout’s arrest took place in Thailand because of close police relations of the two countries. It is still far from clear whether he can be legally extradited under Thai law.
Bout was arrested by a cabal of American DEA agents though he was never accused of any drug crimes anywhere. So we have the DEA acting as world police not so much of actual crimes but of morals.
How is the DEA’s elevation to world thought police different from the racketeering the US often invokes against so-called organized crime?
Most importantly, Bout is accused of making private profit using the same lucrative business model of many governments. The USA is, after all, the world’s biggest arms merchant and has a long history of selling to both sides. Can’t stand the competition?
I am not defending the arms trade. It’s time to stop the merchants of death, the lords of war, whether they are called illegal or are sovereign states. The world needs peace not war.
CJ Hinke
Bangkok, Thailand
[Reply]
Guerrillero Reply:
August 15th, 2009 at 9:21 am
yes, you are right CJ countries like the states have a long record of double standard regarding things that are on their interest. i am not supporting the arms trade either, but i believe that that kind of abuse of power has to be stop.
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December 15th, 2008 at 5:40 am
I missed the fact that Bout’s so-called nemesis in the DEA retired to work for an outfit called SPECTRE. The acronym was also used for Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion, nemesis to James Bond.
Pity he didn’t choose SMERSH. The whole Viktor Bout “takedown” is far more Man from U.N.C.L.E.!
CJ Hinke
Bangkok, Thailand
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December 22nd, 2008 at 11:10 am
Amen, CJ!! I had the same thoughts while reading the article!! Who made the DEA or the USA the world’s policemen? If we (Yes, I am an citizen of the US) are to be the world’s policemen, shouldn’t we have some better standards then we have be showing over the past 25 years! Mr Bout is certainly no angel, but who Braun represents is no better.
FA Lesh
PA, USA
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December 22nd, 2008 at 5:19 pm
It explains in the article that the U.S. Gov’t has expanded the DEA’s scope of enforcement… please people, read before making stupid assumptions about ‘morality police’
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December 26th, 2008 at 3:46 pm
Adrian, if you read our statements, we did read and comprehended the DEA’s repsonsiblity, we were disagreeing that it is the correct action for the US to be taking!! The discussion was not “is this in the DEA’s scope”, but is this in the USA scope of responsibility!
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January 14th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
Not everything is simple in this world. If not the US, then who? The Thai’s lack the capacity and the Russians the desire. I know it’s probably more satifying to wring your hands and criticize the US. I noted neither of you worried much about the Russian complicity or the lives taken by the weapons he’s sold world-wide.
I don’t know if the US ought to perform this policing action, but much like countering piracy in shipping lanes world-wide, someone has to do the job and no one else is stepping forward.
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August 10th, 2009 at 12:58 pm
I’ll be there tomorrow at the criminal court to observe the final hearing. Here we go again…
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October 23rd, 2009 at 8:10 pm
In a January 2005 letter to Congress, then-Assistant Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz admitted the Defense Department “did conduct business with companies that, in turn, subcontracted work to second-tier providers who leased aircraft owned by companies associated with Mr. Bout.”
At the time, Bout was already a wanted international fugitive. Intelligence officials had considered Bout one of the greatest threats to U.S. interests, in the same league as al Qaeda kingpin Osama bin Laden. Interpol had issued a warrant for his arrest; the United Nations Security Council had restricted his travel.
But that didn’t stop U.S. government contractors from paying Bout-controlled firms roughly $60 million to fly supplies into Iraq in support of the U.S. war effort, according to a book released last year by two reporters who investigated Bout. And it didn’t prevent the U.S. military from giving Bout’s pilots millions of dollars in free airplane fuel while they were flying U.S. supply flights.
From 2003 through at least 2005, Pentagon contractors used air cargo companies known to be connected to Bout to fly an estimated 1,000 supply trips into and out of Iraq, according to “Merchant of Death: Money, Guns, Plans, and the Man Who Makes War Possible” by Douglas Farah and Stephen Braun. A Pentagon spokesman confirmed to the authors that the military gave 500,000 gallons of fuel to Bout’s pilots.
In an interview Thursday, Farah said he understood Bout may have worked on behalf of the U.S. government as recently as last year.
Breckenridge Colorado
http://www.luckymountainhome.com/
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