พอดีเห็นข่าวน่าสนใจก็เลยหยิบยกมาให้ลองอ่านดู จะได้ไม่ตกข่าว ลองอ่านดูนะครับ เดี๋ยวว่างๆจะมาทำความเข้าใจกับหลายๆประเด็นในเรื่องนี้นะครับ ตอนนี้ขออนุญาตไปฝนคะแนนก่อนนะครับ
BangkokPost.com, Agencies
Russian Victor Bout, known as the "merchant of death" for his years of illegal arms trafficking, is in a Bangkok jail after a sting operation by Thai police and allied American agents who posed as Colombian Marxists eager to buy his weapons.
The 40-year-old suspect - who famously served as a model for actor Nicholas Cage's arms smuggling anti-hero in the Hollywood movie "Lord of War" - was arrested at a luxury hotel in Bangkok, police said.
Police have charged him with illegal trafficking of arms in Thailand "If he is found guilty of the charge he will spend two to 10 years in jail here," said Pol Lt Gen Adisorn Nonsri, Commissioner of the Central Investigation Bureau, at a press conference on Friday morning.
But the German news agency dpa, quoting other sources, reported that Thai charges were likely to be dismissed in court so that Bout can be extradited to the United States, where he already has been charged with conspiracy to sell millions of dollars worth of weapons to Colombian rebels, according to US Justice Department.
"The US has been chasing this man for almost a decade," Adirsorn told a press conference.
Thomas Pasquarello, the Bangkok-based regional director for the DEA, agreed with that. He praised the Thai police force for their cooperation in arresting Bout, and then declared:
"We have warrants for Mr Bout and we do intend to extradite him."
In Washington, the Justice Department said Bout's arrest was the result of close cooperation between US and Thai authorities and that the US would seek his extradition.
It is unclear whether Russia will ask Thai authorities to extradite Bout to Russia instead.
After his arrest on Thursday, police brought Bout, an overweight figure with cropped dark hair, a moustache and a bright orange polo shirt, into their headquarters in handcuffs and an orange, jail-issue jump suit.
Pol Maj Gen Pongpat Chayaphan said that Bout was arrested after a Bangkok court issued a warrant against him for attempted mass murder.
"He is now in the custody of the Crime Suppression Division. We will take legal action against him here, before deporting him to face trial in another country, likely the US," he said.
"We have followed him for several months. He just came back to Thailand," Pongpat said, adding that more details would be given on Friday. Authorities said he returned to Bangkok on Feb 29.
"We were able to infiltrate his criminal organisation, to gain access to some of his key associates," said a DEA official who asked not to be named.
"These undercover sources were acting as high level representatives of the FARC, attempting to obtain arms," he explained, referring to the rebels of the illegal Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
Speaking in New York, US Attorney Michael J Garcia said Bout, described by the US government as a former Soviet air force officer with a gift for languages, sought to sell the two American DEA agents, posing as Colombian guerrillas, millions of dollars worth of weapons, including surface-to-air missiles. He was apprehended as he and his supposed "customers" were in the final stages of making arrangements for the sale and shipment of the arms.
It was all an elaborate sting. The former Russian air force pilot now faces extradition to the United States, where New York prosecutors have formally charged him and an associate with conspiring to sell millions of dollars in arms to terrorists.
Reports have linked him to civil wars in Africa and he is said to have helped arm Afghanistan's Taliban militia, Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network, Marxist rebels in South America and Liberian warlord Charles Taylor.
As investigative journalists Douglas Farah and Stephen Braun document in their book on Bout called Merchant of Death, Bout's planes airdropped as many as 10,000 weapons to guerrillas with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or Farc, in the late 1990s.
Amnesty International has alleged that at one time he operated a fleet of more than 50 planes ferrying weapons shipments around Africa.
In Washington, officials said Bout had been arrested after sources working for the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) mounted a sting operation by posing as Colombian guerrillas seeking to buy weapons.
According to a previously sealed complaint released by New York prosecutors, the DEA sources set up several meetings with Bout's associate Andrew Smulian in Romania, Denmark and the Dutch West Indies to discuss a deal.
During the meetings, agents recorded telephone calls to Bout in which he discussed shipping an arsenal of deadly weapons, including helicopters, armour-piercing rocket launchers and surface-to-air missiles.
Following the arrest, US prosecutors from the Southern District of New York said they would seek Bout's extradition to face charges "for conspiracy to provide material support to a terrorist organization".
Bout's native Russia will also seek Bout's extradition, according to an official cited by the Ria-Novosti news agency, while Belgium has asked the international police agency Interpol to issue a global alert for him.
In Liberia, a former officer with ousted dictator Taylor's intelligence service on Thursday described Bout as a "timber trader who paid his bills with weapons" destined for the warlord's notoriously brutal army.
Between 1998 and 2001, when Liberia was in the grip of civil war and subject to a United Nations arms embargo, Bout's boats arrived at the Liberian port of Buchanan loaded with weapons and left carrying wood, he said.
A former Soviet air force officer who was born in 1967, Bout was dubbed the "Merchant of Death" by former British government minister Peter Hain due to his involvement in supplying arms to Liberia and Angola.
In March last year, US Treasury Department imposed sanctions against seven companies accused of fuelling the war in Democratic Republic of Congo at the start of the decade. Three of the companies were linked to Bout.
The 40-year-old suspect - who famously served as a model for actor Nicholas Cage's arms smuggling anti-hero in the Hollywood movie "Lord of War" - was arrested at a luxury hotel in Bangkok, police said.
Police have charged him with illegal trafficking of arms in Thailand "If he is found guilty of the charge he will spend two to 10 years in jail here," said Pol Lt Gen Adisorn Nonsri, Commissioner of the Central Investigation Bureau, at a press conference on Friday morning.
But the German news agency dpa, quoting other sources, reported that Thai charges were likely to be dismissed in court so that Bout can be extradited to the United States, where he already has been charged with conspiracy to sell millions of dollars worth of weapons to Colombian rebels, according to US Justice Department.
"The US has been chasing this man for almost a decade," Adirsorn told a press conference.
Thomas Pasquarello, the Bangkok-based regional director for the DEA, agreed with that. He praised the Thai police force for their cooperation in arresting Bout, and then declared:
"We have warrants for Mr Bout and we do intend to extradite him."
In Washington, the Justice Department said Bout's arrest was the result of close cooperation between US and Thai authorities and that the US would seek his extradition.
It is unclear whether Russia will ask Thai authorities to extradite Bout to Russia instead.
After his arrest on Thursday, police brought Bout, an overweight figure with cropped dark hair, a moustache and a bright orange polo shirt, into their headquarters in handcuffs and an orange, jail-issue jump suit.
Pol Maj Gen Pongpat Chayaphan said that Bout was arrested after a Bangkok court issued a warrant against him for attempted mass murder.
"He is now in the custody of the Crime Suppression Division. We will take legal action against him here, before deporting him to face trial in another country, likely the US," he said.
"We have followed him for several months. He just came back to Thailand," Pongpat said, adding that more details would be given on Friday. Authorities said he returned to Bangkok on Feb 29.
"We were able to infiltrate his criminal organisation, to gain access to some of his key associates," said a DEA official who asked not to be named.
"These undercover sources were acting as high level representatives of the FARC, attempting to obtain arms," he explained, referring to the rebels of the illegal Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
Speaking in New York, US Attorney Michael J Garcia said Bout, described by the US government as a former Soviet air force officer with a gift for languages, sought to sell the two American DEA agents, posing as Colombian guerrillas, millions of dollars worth of weapons, including surface-to-air missiles. He was apprehended as he and his supposed "customers" were in the final stages of making arrangements for the sale and shipment of the arms.
It was all an elaborate sting. The former Russian air force pilot now faces extradition to the United States, where New York prosecutors have formally charged him and an associate with conspiring to sell millions of dollars in arms to terrorists.
Reports have linked him to civil wars in Africa and he is said to have helped arm Afghanistan's Taliban militia, Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network, Marxist rebels in South America and Liberian warlord Charles Taylor.
As investigative journalists Douglas Farah and Stephen Braun document in their book on Bout called Merchant of Death, Bout's planes airdropped as many as 10,000 weapons to guerrillas with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or Farc, in the late 1990s.
Amnesty International has alleged that at one time he operated a fleet of more than 50 planes ferrying weapons shipments around Africa.
In Washington, officials said Bout had been arrested after sources working for the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) mounted a sting operation by posing as Colombian guerrillas seeking to buy weapons.
According to a previously sealed complaint released by New York prosecutors, the DEA sources set up several meetings with Bout's associate Andrew Smulian in Romania, Denmark and the Dutch West Indies to discuss a deal.
During the meetings, agents recorded telephone calls to Bout in which he discussed shipping an arsenal of deadly weapons, including helicopters, armour-piercing rocket launchers and surface-to-air missiles.
Following the arrest, US prosecutors from the Southern District of New York said they would seek Bout's extradition to face charges "for conspiracy to provide material support to a terrorist organization".
Bout's native Russia will also seek Bout's extradition, according to an official cited by the Ria-Novosti news agency, while Belgium has asked the international police agency Interpol to issue a global alert for him.
In Liberia, a former officer with ousted dictator Taylor's intelligence service on Thursday described Bout as a "timber trader who paid his bills with weapons" destined for the warlord's notoriously brutal army.
Between 1998 and 2001, when Liberia was in the grip of civil war and subject to a United Nations arms embargo, Bout's boats arrived at the Liberian port of Buchanan loaded with weapons and left carrying wood, he said.
A former Soviet air force officer who was born in 1967, Bout was dubbed the "Merchant of Death" by former British government minister Peter Hain due to his involvement in supplying arms to Liberia and Angola.
In March last year, US Treasury Department imposed sanctions against seven companies accused of fuelling the war in Democratic Republic of Congo at the start of the decade. Three of the companies were linked to Bout.
