Viktor Bout: Capturing "The Merchant of Death"

Two weeks later, in another meeting, this time in Copenhagen, Smulian told the DEA's two undercover operatives that his Russian business partner really liked the deal and then he revealed who that man in Moscow really is.

"'You know who this man is that we're getting the weapons from? This is Bout. B-O-U-T. He's wanted by the world. They call him the Merchant of Death,'" Milione quoted Smulian. "He spelled it out for him. We marveled that Smulian would do that. But it was just great evidence."

The DEA was in the game, but Bout was still safe and secure in Russia and reluctant to leave. The DEA undercovers insisted they couldn't go to Moscow but had to meet Bout to seal the deal.

"And Bout's gonna know that that's how these deals are gonna work. Comandante is not going to release these millions of dollars for these weapons to anybody until he at least shakes hands, talks, looks Bout in the eye and then we can move on. That's how we countered. And Bout went for it," Milione explained.

The next stop was Romania, just three days later. The play was to entice Bout to Bucharest, claiming that's where the money was stashed to pay for the weapons. Bout said he'd come, but then he had trouble getting a visa. The case stalled.

After ten days of waiting for Bout, the top DEA agent made a gutsy call: to walk away.

"So, you've been chasing this guy hard for two months. You almost got him. And you gotta make the decision to step away from the table?" Keteyian asked.

"If we were real, we wouldn't stay there forever," Milione explained. "We're gonna now step away and say, 'Look we need to take care of some other things. But it's time for us to leave.'"

Over the next two weeks, Milione came up with a new plan to reel Bout in. The phony rebels told Bout they would be in Bangkok soon. Asked if he could get there, Bout agreed.

The morning Bout arrived in Bangkok, the DEA and Thai police had gathered downtown, waiting for word from cops at the airport that the "Merchant of Death" had landed.

"They call us in the room and they tell us that he's here," Milione remembered.

Asked what that moment was like, Milione said, "It was just unbelievable. Because we knew at that point, you know you're kind of like holding on as you climb up the mountain at different points in the investigation. This was one where at that point I believed, and the other investigators believed, not only are we in the game, he shows up at this meeting, we've got him. He's gonna be arrested."

• « Previous Page
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• Next Page »

[nonsheeple]

This article is BS. This guy has never shipped arms illegally; always legally transported weapons to governments and never stolen weapons. The US is concerned about the 9/11 link. He was involved in selling the soviet navy the nuclear tipped Granite missile that took out the pentagon in 9/11 (if you think an aluminum plane can go thru 6 hardened layers I have some swamp land to sell ya). Lucky for us the nuclear detonator broke. The FARC propaganda story is for public consumption as the real story might be a tad embarrassing, and create additional questions of Russian complicity in 9/11. Additionally, the Russians have been this guys enemy - they are not on his side.

Some good background is here -and follow the links to Dimitri's site for deep coverage of this. http://projectcamelotproductions.com/interviews/viktor_bout/911_viktorbout.html

[KeithDrippingSprings]

It is funny how they loved Victor when he could fly supplies into Afghanistan and Iraq when the Americans couldn't do it. Funny how we have friends for awhile, then we name them the most dangerous person in the world.

The only problem our Government was having was too much competition. Deadly and immoral is all America is in most of the world. It is time we lived up to the ideals we profess instead of being the biggest criminals in the world.

No one except Satan himself could save Victor now but he isn't guilty of anything our own government isn't doing every day.

[Kalimikharkoss]

Amen!

[little_lesa]

The problem here is that Victor Bout was not CIA. They hate competition. Just curious though, what gives the US jurisdiction and what US crimes did he commit. Very far reaching arms if you as me.

[YrWrongAgain]

Some you dressed in a lovely peignoir set and waited for Viktor, but he didn't come. So you post your frustrations here.

[culturechang]

"Rarely does the U.S. government want anyone more than it wanted Viktor Bout"

You crimes have to involve sex to get a higher degree of attention from US law enforcement.

[guyfrompa46]

I love all you anti American A-holes.. All jealous and all want to come here. Shut up already

[guyfrompa46]

I love all you anti Marican A-holes.. All jealous and all want to come here. Shut up already

[Kalimikharkoss]

Apparently you, a 'true' American, cannot spell. Go and seek some additional education. It appears that you certainly need it.

[Cassarit]

One question that no one is asking is why is the US going out of it's way to humiliate the Russians?

Another is, how are the Russians supposed to react to this intolerable act?

[smitvict]

How did the world react when the Russians poisoned Alexander Litvinenko in Britan? They'll get over it.

[Cassarit]

It looks like some neocon animal in Washington is trying to restart the cold war. Personally I'd like to see the Russians put a huge price on the head of each and every one of these DEA scumbags.

[smitvict]

The difference is that Americans arrest and try criminals. The Russians poison people they don't like with polonium-210 and let them die a slowwww death.

[youbrew12]

Glad to see people on this comments thread aren't fooled. To give just one example: the U.S. GIVES the dictator of Egypt $2 billion every year, on the proviso that he spend half of it on U.S. military hardware. But no, that's not 'socialism'. The hypocrisy is almost too much to bear. Among other things, that dictator uses his U.S. guns to place his boot on the necks of 100 million Egyptians. Since this has been going on for 25 years, is there any blowback for this? Well, lets just say, that the last time the Egyptians decided to take it personally, 9-11 happened...