[BishopMVP]

Originally Posted by Edward64

I think below article shows he was a very dangerous person when he was captured. I do hope he is happy with retirement and doesn't get back into the business (I can rationalize the trade then). But then, it bears asking why does Putin want him back if not for his connections and negotiation skills.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/08/w...o%2025%20years.

He was out of the game for 6 years before the US targeted him. I don't know the legal definitions but it really was borderline entrapment.

Amid increasing international pressure, including an Interpol arrest warrant issued in 2002, Bout returned to Moscow.

By many accounts, Bout at that time stepped back from his most intense work in the arms trade. He lived in Golitsyno, a small town outside Moscow. A friend visiting his home in 2008 later noted that it was filled with books as well as, surprisingly, a DVD of the 2005 Nicolas Cage film “Lord of War,” which was reportedly inspired by Bout’s life.

Unfortunately for him, that guest — former South African intelligence agent Andrew Smulian — was working for the DEA.

Bout was arrested later in Thailand, where he had been secretly recorded by the DEA organizing the purchase of 100 surface-to-air missiles, 20,000 AK-47 rifles, 20,000 grenades, 740 mortars, 350 sniper rifles, five tons of C-4 explosives and 10 million rounds of ammunition for people he thought were agents for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), an insurgent group.

The elaborate sting operation got around a key problem in the U.S. pursuit of Bout: He hadn’t broken any U.S. laws. In 2011, a federal court in New York found him guilty of a variety of charges, including conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals.