The Russian ‘ Lord of War', Viktor Bout, faces terrorist charges in the US. The prolific arms trafficker is believed to have supplied weapons to the FARC, the Taliban, Al Qaeda and a variety of African warlords.

The US government has charged Viktor Bout (1967) with conspiring to sell a terrorist group millions of dollars in weapons "to be used to kill Americans in Colombia," federal prosecutors announced Tuesday.

The Former Soviet military major is accused of selling surface-to-air missiles, armour-piercing rocket launchers, "ultra light" airplanes, unmanned aerial vehicles, and other weapons to the Revolutionary Armed forces of Columbia (FARC). A group that has been designated a terrorist organisation by the US.

Terrorism
Federal authorities charge Bout with four terrorism offences: conspiracy to kill US nationals, conspiracy to kill US officers or employees, conspiracy to acquire and use an anti-aircraft missile, and conspiracy to provide material support or resources to a designated foreign terrorist organisation. There was no immediate public response from Bout, who remains in custody in Thailand.

Bout was arrested in Bangkok in March in an operation by US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) agents. Federal prosecutors said Bout agreed to sell weapons "to two confidential sources" working with the DEA. They had represented that they were acquiring these weapons for the FARC, with the understanding that the weapons were to be used to attack US helicopters in Columbia.

Since his arrest, Thai authorities have been holding him in a high-security prison while a court has to decide on extradition to the US.

'Merchant of Death'
Viktor Bout has long been considered by the international community as one of the world's most prolific arms traffickers. He is believed to have made millions of dollars selling illegal arms to countries that the UN has placed arms embargoes on and has been labelled the 'Embargo Buster'. His assets in the United States were frozen in 2004 after he allegedly shipped weapons to Liberia in violation of US government restrictions.

He started his career as an arms dealer after the fall of the Soviet Union. Since then he sold weapons to every buyer he could find, irrespective of ideology, including the UN and the US. He started his business, however, in the Middle East, selling arms to the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan. His markets included war-torn African countries like Liberia, Sierra Leone, Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo. He allegedly also sold arms to Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

Bout was the inspiration for a book as well as a film. In 2005 the movie Lord of War, starring Nicolas Cage as the character Yuri Orlov, was partially based on Bout. In 2007 Stephen Braun and Douglas Farah published a book about Bout entitled Merchant of Death: Money, Guns, Planes, and the Man Who Makes War Possible.