Viktor Bout, the Russian arms dealer known as the “Merchant of Death,” walked out of a U.S. prison almost two years ago in a trade with Moscow for U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner. Now he is back in business, trying to broker the sale of small arms to Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi militants.
The 57-year-old, whose life reportedly inspired the 2005 Hollywood movie, “Lord of War,” starring Nicolas Cage, spent decades selling Soviet-made weapons in Africa, South America and the Middle East before being arrested in 2008 in a U.S. law-enforcement sting operation.
Since his release, Bout has joined a pro-Kremlin far-right party and won a seat in a local assembly in 2023, seemingly turning the page on his days as an arms broker. But when Houthi emissaries went to Moscow in August to negotiate the purchase of $10 million worth of automatic weapons, they encountered a familiar face: the mustachioed Bout, according to a European security official and other people familiar with the matter.
Arrested in Thailand in a 2008 sting operation led by U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents posing as Colombian leftist rebels, he was convicted in 2011 of conspiring to kill Americans and attempting to sell weapons to Colombian rebels. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
The Houthis have repeatedly attacked international shipping and have launched drone and missile attacks against Israel. The U.S. and Israel have carried out airstrikes in response, including on Friday when the American military struck 15 Houthi targets. – Source – Archive
Posted by External-Noise-4832
3 Comments
Russians are always behind the terrorists
Can’t we just make it illegal for anyone to own weapons besides the USA???
Viktor Bout, the Russian arms dealer who was jailed in the United States and then swapped two years ago for the US basketball star Brittney Griner, has resumed trading weapons, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Citing an unnamed European security source and other anonymous sources familiar with the matter, the newspaper reported on Sunday that Bout, dubbed “the merchant of death” was trying to broker the sale of small arms to Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi armed group.
“When Houthi emissaries went to Moscow in August to negotiate the purchase of $10 million worth of automatic weapons, they encountered a familiar face: the mustachioed Bout,” the Journal said, citing its sources.