Viktor Bout: Career in Illegal Arms Trafficking Research Paper

Viktor Bout rose from being a low-paid translator in the Soviet armed forces to becoming the most notorious illegal arms trafficker in the world. Nicknamed ‘the Merchant of Death,’ he is thought to be involved in supplying weapons and ammunition to wide-ranging customers from the Taliban in Afghanistan, to rebels in Columbia and warlords in Africa.

Life before career in illegal arms trafficking

Viktor Anatolyevich Bout was born in Dushanbe, Tajikistan on January 13, 1967. After completing his education, he enrolled in the military of the Soviet Union. He was initially assigned to work as a navigator at a Soviet military base in Vitebsk. After a few years, the scope of his duties was increased to include training the Soviet air force, commando troops. The year 1991 was auspicious in Viktor Bout’s life. First of all, he obtained a degree in foreign languages that year from the Military Institute in Moscow. Later that year he was promoted as a military translator for the Soviet army in Angola, Africa. Finally, his military career came to an abrupt end when the Soviet Union collapsed late in 1991. Bout and his fellow officers were rendered jobless (Amoruso).

Viktor Bout decided to go into the air transport business. Taking advantage of the Soviet Union’s collapse, he bought a large number of aircraft lying abandoned in Soviet airfields. The powerfully built Antonov and Ilyushin aircraft were not only easier to maintain than U.S. planes, but the planes and their crews were available for sale at very low prices (BBC.co.uk). Bout established the Transavia Export Cargo Company in 1993. The company initially did legitimate business, particularly with the U.N, by airlifting supplies to its peacekeeping forces in various countries (Amoruso).

Illegal arms trafficking – destination afghanistan

Viktor Bout’s greed for quick riches made him turn to illegal arms trafficking. He used his international contacts to develop business relations with the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan. The latter was in need of weapons (Amoruso). Bout used his wide range of contacts to locate illegal arms suppliers . Bout then used his aircraft to transport the illegal shipments of arms to the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan. This went on for a period of 2 years , by the end of which he earned nearly $ 50 million, which he promptly invested into his rapidly expanding illegal arms trade (Amoruso).

Bout inaugurated his second company called Trans Aviation Network Group in Ostend, Belgium in March 1995. His illegal arms trade suffered a setback when the Afghan Northern Alliance was overthrown and replaced by the Taliban. Cutting all ties with the Northern Alliance, Bout initiated discussions with the Taliban and had no difficulty in making them his new customer in Afghanistan. Bout’s illegal arms shipments resumed to that country, in fact increasing in quantity and frequency (Amoruso).

As his business flourished, so did Viktor Bout’s lifestyle. He purchased a large house in Ostend, several luxury cars, and even a luxury apartment in a posh Moscow residential area. His high standard of life in Belgium came to an abrupt end in 1997 when the national newspapers began publishing articles about his alleged role in illegal arms trafficking that in turn prompted the Belgian government to initiate investigations into his business. Shrewdly deciding that retreat was the better part of valor, Bout left Belgium and moved to the United Arab Emirates (Amoruso).

Illegal arms trafficking – destination africa

Viktor Bout found the U.A.E perfectly suited for his shady business. It was an important global financial hub, it was the fulcrum where the East met West trade, and business in it was facilitated by free trade zones and bank secrecy regulations. Bout chose the emirate of Sharjah in the U.A.E to be the principal center of his operations. While he continued to operate illegal arms shipments to the Taliban in Afghanistan, he soon added a new destination – Africa. He set up a new company named Air Cess in Liberia which became his conduit for supplying illegal arms to all parts of Africa (Amoruso).

Viktor Bout did not believe in ideals nor did he indulge in political partiality. He supplied arms to any group that could pay him in cash or precious stones (Amoruso). For example, he supplied arms to former Liberian President Charles Taylor to create confusion and tension in Sierra Leone with the sole intention of gaining access to its diamonds (BBC.co.uk). According to U.S and U.N sources, Bout delivered thousands of weapons such as assault rifles, grenade launchers, and missile launchers, and massive quantities of ammunition to different customers in Africa (Amoruso).

Bout’s customers included Uganda, Sierra Leone, Cameroon, Sudan, Central African Republic, Swaziland, Congo Democratic Republic, South Africa, Guinea, Rwanda, Kenya, Libya, Liberia, and Angola. In just one year , no less than 38 flights delivered more than $ 14 million worth of illegal arms to the African countries (Amoruso). Besides Charles Taylor, Bout supplied weapons to African warlords like Jonas Savimbi , Mobuto Sese Seko and Moammar Gadhafi (Godoy). While the majority of illegal arms came from Bulgaria (Amoruso), Bout also obtained them from other East European nations like Moldova and Ukraine (BBC.co.uk). By the year 2000, Bout’s range of merchandise had expanded to include helicopters, armored vehicles, and anti-aircraft guns (Amoruso).

Viktor bout on the run

By 2000 the U.S and Interpol were beginning to realize what an important role Bout occupied in the shady business of illegal arms trafficking. As they began operations to find and nab him, Bout prudently took refuge in his home in Sharjah, U.A.E. His huge fortune and astute political connections made and nurtured during the previous 5 years in that country effectively rendered him untouchable. The efforts of his pursuers were hampered by lack of concrete evidence and the way their investigations tended to end up at one dead end after another because Bout’s operations was a labyrinth of individuals, organizations, aircraft, and destinations where they could not pinpoint which aircraft belonged to him and where they flew. Bout was also smart enough to omit his name from any registrations. When the U.S and Interpol finally pieced together what they assumed was sufficient evidence against him, they came up against highly-placed princes and officials in the U.A.E government who refused to revoke their protection and hand him over. As a result, the international efforts to nab Bout began losing intensity (Amoruso). Although Bout continued to officially be on the run, he was safely ensconced in the U.A.E, from where he continued to conduct his nefarious activities.

Intensification in international efforts to nab Viktor bout

Viktor Bout’s sense of security was shattered when a calamitous event occurred that thrust him into the global limelight. The attack on America on September 11, 2001, was the first of its kind in magnitude and stunning ferocity that targeted not only the U.S but was perceived as an attack on the entire free world. President George W. Bush announced to the world that a Muslim extremist organization called Al Qaeda was the perpetrator of 9/11; it was located in Afghanistan, and it was supported by the Taliban. Bout was immediately implicated due to his known role as an illegal arms supplier to the Taliban (Amoruso).

The U.S. made nabbing Bout one of their top priorities. Old evidence was resurrected and new evidence was meticulously garnered as the dragnet began closing on Bout. He became internationally notorious, with his name and exploits in the illegal arms trade featuring in newspapers and on televisions all over the world. Correctly judging that his U.A.E protectors could no longer resist the U.S and international pressure to cease their protection, Bout left the U.A.E and slipped back into Russia. He bribed corrupt Russian officials and got them to hide him. As a result, when U.S and Interpol investigators tracked him to Russia and demand that it hand him over, Russian officials in Moscow coolly declared in an international press conference that Viktor Bout was not in Russia (Amoruso).

Faced with no alternative, the U.S and Interpol decided to abide by their time and use their resources and technology to nab Bout at a later date.

Viktor Bout’s Relations With The U.N And U.S.

Although the U.S and Interpol intensified their effort to nab him after 2000, Bout actually has a good track record of cooperation with the U.N as well as the U.S.

Bout’s Transavia Export Company’s aircraft delivered supplies to the Belgian peacekeeping forces in Somalia, Africa (Amoruso). Bout’s planes airlifted U.N peacekeeping troops to East Timor (BBC.co.uk). Bout helped the U.S government by airlifting shipments to areas in Iraq considered too dangerous for U.S air force planes to operate (Amoruso). Frequently referred to as the ‘linchpin in the U.S supply line to Iraq,’ and ‘second-tier contractor,’ Bout delivered hundreds of shipments ranging from guns to drilling machines and food to U.S forces in Iraq (Braun). Bout’s cooperation with the U.S continued even after its efforts to nab him after 2000. For example in December 2004, a Bout-controlled U.S charter firm based in Texas operated several flights to Iraq under contract with Halliburton’s subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root to refuel U.S military bases there (Isikoff).

The collusion between Bout, the U.S, and U.N was evident when the U.N Security Council passed a resolution in March 2004 to freeze the assets of illegal arms suppliers who supported Charles Taylor of Liberia. Bout’s name did not feature in the resolution. U.N officials admitted Bout’s name was omitted at the behest of the U.S who did not want to compromise Bout’s ongoing help in their Iraq operations (Godoy).

Bout’s planes continued to help the U.S in Iraq until the third quarter of 2006. It was then that the U.S, apparently reacting to increasingly hostile world reaction at its support for Bout, pulled the plug on the Russian. President George W. Bush signed an executive order in October 2006 to freeze Bout’s assets and prohibited Americans from engaging in business relations with him (BBC.co.uk).

The Arrest Of Viktor Bout

The customer that brought about Viktor Bout’s ultimate downfall was the Colombian rebel group called the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia . Bout had earlier supplied FARC illegal arms to aid their struggle against the Colombian government. He, therefore, did not suspect anything when called upon to negotiate further illegal arms supply to them. The negotiations were due to be held in a hotel in Bangkok, Thailand in March this year. Bout turned up at the appointed time only to be arrested by U.S undercover agents, posing as FARC purchase representatives (BBC.co.uk). The arrest of Viktor Bout marked a successful culmination of a joint U.S-Thai operation. Bout was formally accused of planning secretly and illegally to smuggle rocket launchers and missiles to a rebel outfit called the FARC which is on the U.S’s list of terrorist organizations (Franchetti).

Viktor Bout is presently incarcerated in a prison in Bangkok while the U.S is attempting to get a court order to extradite him to the U.S in order to face charges that could keep him in jail for up to 15 years. Predictably, the notorious gunrunner who even has a film {‘Lord of War’ starring Nicholas Gage as a law-breaking illegal arms dealer} made in his name, claims he is the innocent target of ‘fabricated American accusations,’ while his wife of 16 years, Alla, denounces the charges against her husband as ‘a load of rubbish,’ claiming Bout is a ‘poet, not the Lord of War’ (Franchetti).

References

Amoruso, David. “Victor Bout.” Gangsters Inc. 2002. Web.

Braun, Stephen. “Bad Guys Make Even Worse Allies.” Los Angeles Times. 2007. Web.

Franchetti, Mark. “He’s a Poet, not the Lord of War, Says Wife of Gunrunner Viktor Bout.” Timesonline.co.uk. 2008. Web.

Godoy, Julio. “Wanted in Africa, Needed in Iraq.” Inter Press Service. 2004. Web.

Isikoff, Michael. “Reconstruction Deal with a ‘Merchant of Death.’” Newsweek. 2004. Web.

“Profile: Victor Bout.” BBC.co.uk. 2008. Web.