'Merchant of Death' Captured in Thailand

WASHINGTON, March 7, 2008— -- Sheer greed may have lured the world's most notorious arms dealer, the Russian Viktor Bout, to his own capture in Thailand Thursday, under a U.S. criminal complaint for conspiracy to provide weapons to a Colombian rebel group.

Bout, who has been dubbed "The Merchant of Death" and allegedly fueled wars and violence in conflict zones around the globe in Africa, Central Asia, Europe and South America, was arrested by Thai authorities in conjunction with agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration after a months-long sting operation.

He was charged with conspiring to sell weapons to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a Colombian rebel organization that has been designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department.

For years Bout, who has openly lived in Moscow since at least 2002, has been wanted by authorities worldwide for his lucrative business. He was arrested after an associate named Andrew Smulian began arranging a deal that the two allegedly believed would provide FARC with Igla surface-to-air missiles, attack helicopters and armor-piercing rocket launchers.

Smulian is also facing charges in the United States, according to the criminal complaint.

Bout, originally from Dushanbe, Tajikistan, has profited by allegedly providing weapons and transport into the world's most hostile environments, including civil wars in the Congo, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

Bout allegedly profited from U.S. contracts in Iraq when the United States unwittingly used some of Bout's pilots to fly supplies into the country after the fall of Saddam Hussein. In 2005, the Treasury Department noted that Bout earned $50 million by supplying arms to the Taliban .

According to law enforcement officials, Bout now was allegedly looking to make a profit in Colombia, a region that has endured years of fighting between the Colombian Army and FARC rebels. The current deal was initially to be for $5 million in weapons, and according to court documents Bout was looking to unload more than 100 tons of weapons.

"He was offering the arms and the transportation," a senior law enforcement official told ABC News on Thursday. "Moving anything, anywhere, anytime … he believed he was facilitating trade with narcoterrorists."

Asked by ABC News why Bout agreed to take a chance on the Thailand meeting, leaving Russia after refusing meetings in Europe because of warrants seeking his arrest, the official said, "Greed … he believed it was a legitimate meeting."