'Merchant of Death' arms dealer who 'inspired Nicolas Cage film Lord of War' faces trial in New York



Terror plot: Arms dealer Viktor Bout has been convicted thanks to star witness Carlos Sagastume

A Russian businessman - dubbed the 'Merchant of Death' - goes on trial today accused of being an international arms dealer and drugs smuggler.

Viktor Bout, said to be worth $6 billion and to have inspired the 2005 Nicolas Cage film Lord of War, has evaded the authorities for nearly two decades.

He is believed to have been responsible for aiding and abetting wars across the globe.



But the 44-year-old is now behind bars and facing a New York jury after being charged with a wide range of counts.

These include conspiracy to kill Americans, attempting to sell arms to undercover federal agents, wire fraud and violating UN Security Council sanctions.

Bout has pleaded not guilty to all the charges, and his lawyer Albert Dayan said: 'I'm very confident the trial will make it transparent he did not intend to sell arms to anyone.'

But international security experts revealed the charges actually make up only a small fraction of what they believe he has been responsible for.

Kathi Lynn Austin, an arms researcher, told new channel CNN that Bout was 'the quintessential war profiteer' and that by providing larger and more-powerful arms than rebels would otherwise have had access to he had 'actually initiated wars in countries such as Liberia and Sierra Leone'.

Bout, a former Soviet military officer who speaks four languages, ran a private fleet of long-haul cargo planes that spanned the globe.

His transport network got its start in the early 1990s, soon after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

He leased and then bought old Russian-made cargo planes known for their durability and lumbering size, and amassed an air armada that grew to more than 60 aircraft by the late 1990s, according to U.S. officials.



Deportation: Viktor Bout (centre) on his arrival in New York after being led off his flight from Bangkok

The planes were constantly on the move, flying from Africa to Afghanistan and hopscotching to bases in Belgium, South Africa, Swaziland, the United Arab Emirates and across Eastern Europe.

They brimmed with loads ranging from diamonds to gladiolas. But by the late 1990s, U.S. and UN officials and anti-arms-trade activists say they had pinpointed the flights as a key source of assault rifles and more sophisticated weapons systems turning up in the violence-plagued African nations of Liberia, Angola, Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

INTERNET BLACKOUT U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin said last week she will try a tactic new to federal trials.

She is to make jurors sign a pledge not to research Bout on the Internet or other media.

It will not be easy. The world wide web is flooded with photographs of a haggard Bout in his Thai jail cell, as well as news stories, websites and Facebook pages.

There have been documentaries, books and a suspense novel based on the Russian businessman.

Bout dismissed the Lord of War film as 'a bad movie'.

A rock group, DePotorland, recently released a new video for a song about Bout, 'We Deliver'.

U.S. officials later said Bout's air operations also earned $50 million aiding the Taliban in Afghanistan.

His clients were said to include dictators such as former Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi.

Bout eluded arrest until U.S. narcotics agents lured him to Thailand in a 2008 sting operation, charging him with conspiring to sell anti-aircraft missiles and other weapons to undercover informants posing as South American terrorists.

Protesting his innocence, he was extradited to New York in November after enduring a gruelling, two-year limbo in a Bangkok prison while the U.S. and Russia squared off in a diplomatic tug-of-war.

His arrest was a high point in efforts to stem the flow of black market arms, but the case has set off echoes of the Cold War.

For Russia, Bout's prosecution is seen as American overreach, stoking fears he will be pressed to open up about his ties to Russia's military and intelligence circles.

Describing Bout as a transnational threat capable of aiding terrorists and other violent groups, the U.S. targeted him with financial sanctions for alleged arms work in Liberia and the Congo.



Inspiration: The 2005 film Lord of War, starring Nicolas Cage, is said to have been based on the life of Bout

Belgium indicted him on money laundering charges in 2002 and Interpol issued an international warrant, but Bout retreated to Moscow, where Russian officials spurned the inquiries.

Heavily armed: Viktor Bout is accused of being a Lord of War

When Bout was arrested in Bangkok in March 2008 by the DEA and Thai police, Russian diplomats were quick to defend him.

The case has become a Russian cause celebre in the months since his extradition.



Bout's wife, Alla, and his mother and daughter have come to pre-trial hearings and are expected to attend the trial in New York.

Bout faces a possible life sentence if convicted.