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19-04-2008 (Itar-Tass)
Thailand is starting hearings in the case of extradition to the United States of Russian citizen Viktor Bout who is suspected of arms smuggling, Lieut-Gen Phongphan Chayaphan, chief of the Thai police Crime Suppression Division, stated on Wednesday.
Bout has essentially done business with anyone irrespective of ideology, often contracted on both sides of a war. As well as some of the more controversial customers such as the Taliban or Charles G. Taylor, the UN and the US have also paid for his services.
Hain said: Bout is the leading merchant of death who is the principal conduit for planes and supply routes that take arms, including heavy military equipment, from east Europe, principally Bulgaria, Moldova, and Ukraine, to Liberia and Angola. The UN has exposed Bout as the centre of a spider’s web of shady arms dealers, diamond brokers, and other operatives, sustaining the wars.
May 07, 2008
You can get the document here, at the CTB. The document specifically mentions two cargo planes he apparently produced a brochure (!) on, explaining how they could be used for accurate airdrops into the Colombian backwoods. I'd really love to know which aircraft they were, but there is nothing in the document that helps, and practically all types in the network are capable of airdropping to some degree or other. (An12, An24/26, Il-76...even the An124, if they can get hold of one, can do it, although it would be a tad dramatic.)