The McDonald’s of arms trafficking

We profile Viktor Bout, the “Merchant of Death” who made a fortune supplying arms to some of the bloodiest conflicts on earth – but who really longed to take pictures of butterflies.

"If Viktor Bout did not exist, a thriller writer would have invented him," says The Guardian. For more than a decade, this "Merchant of Death" has made a fortune supplying arms to some of the bloodiest conflicts on earth, promising to deliver "to anyone, anywhere at almost any time", while evading the combined forces of Interpol, the UN and half a dozen intelligence agencies. Last week, his run finally came to an end when he was arrested at a five-star Bangkok hotel following a lengthy sting operation.

A former Russian military officer, Bout speaks six languages fluently and has "as many aliases as an AK-47 has rounds". Many of his associates believed him to be a genius. Certainly, he seemed to spring from nowhere. "Sort of like Jesus," says one US official. Given the misery Bout's wares have wrought, the analogy is crass. But it underlines the skill with which he has muddied the waters both of his past and of his "ever-morphing" series of front companies, says The Observer.

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