Dubbed the “merchant of death,” Viktor Bout was traded for American basketball player Brittney Griner two years ago.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Viktor Bout, the Russian arms dealer who was imprisoned in the US before being exchanged for American basketball player Brittney Griner two years ago, has started trafficking guns again.
The journal said on Sunday that Bout, dubbed “the merchant of death,” was attempting to mediate the sale of small weaponry to Yemen’s Houthi armed force, which is supported by Iran. It cited several anonymous sources who were aware of the situation as well as an unidentified European security source.
Citing sources, the Journal reported that “when Houthi emissaries went to Moscow in August to negotiate the purchase of $10 million worth of automatic weapons, they encountered a familiar face: the mustachioed Bout.”
It stated that the possible arms transfers had not yet been made. It further stated that the weapons are well short of the Russian antiship or anti-air missiles, which may seriously jeopardize US military operations to defend international trade against Houthi strikes.
The report could not be independently verified. Requests for response from the Reuters news agency were not immediately answered by the Russian Ministry of Defense or the Kremlin.
According to the Wall Street Journal, a Houthi spokeswoman declined to comment, and Bout’s US attorney, Steve Zissou, refused to address if his client had interacted with the Houthis.
Following the prisoner swap in December 2022, Bout returned to Russia and became a member of the ultranationalist Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR), a party close to the Kremlin, but he remained largely hidden from the public eye. Bout is 57 years old.
Before his arrest in 2008 on several counts relating to arms trafficking in Thailand, Bout was among the most wanted individuals in the world.
After being extradited to the US, a Manhattan court found him guilty and gave him a 25-year prison sentence in 2012.
Bout was one of the most infamous arms traffickers in the world for nearly 20 years, supplying weapons to warlords, rebel organizations, and rogue governments in South America, Asia, and Africa.
His fame was so great that Nicolas Cage’s portrayal of arms dealer Yuri Orlov in the 2005 Hollywood picture Lord of War, which was partially based on Bout, drew inspiration from his life.
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