Bout was prepared to supply anti-aircraft missiles so that FARC could shoot down American pilots working with Colombian government officials.Д«outвЂ™s experiences as a gunrunner illustrate important patterns in the history of the global arms trade since the advent of firearms in the early modern era: where weapons are sold and bought, who sells and buys them (individuals or states), which weapons (new or second-hand), and whether the weaponsвЂ™ sales are legal in the context of shifting national and international law.Д«out also exemplifies the reemergence of the leading role of private suppliers in the global arms business-as opposed to the country-to-country transactions that dominated the Cold War era. The case against Bout was built upon a sting operation with DEA agents posing as would-be buyers from FARC, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. officials by delivering anti-aircraft missiles and aiding a terrorist organization. In court, Bout was found guilty of conspiracy to kill Americans and U.S. So spectacular was his rise as an arms dealer that his story served as the basis for the 2005 film Lord of War. Indeed, there were few conflicts in the world over the past two decades where BoutвЂ™s weapons were not present. Operating through Eastern Europe, Bout transported weapons through Bulgaria, Moldova and Ukraine to Liberia and Angola in the first years of the new millennium. Previously Bout had supplied arms to both sides in the Angolan civil war and also sold and delivered weapons to various warlords across Central and North Africa. According to UN documents, in exchange for illicit diamonds Bout had supplied former Liberian President Charles Taylor with weapons to help destabilize Sierra Leone. He acquired a fleet of Soviet military aircraft including Antonov and Ilyushin cargo planes as surplus of the Cold War and employed them in operations to deliver weapons to various combatants in Africa.Д«y his own admission, he had flown weapons to anti-Taliban forces in Afghanistan during the 1990s and aided the French government in transporting goods and UN peacekeepers to Rwanda after the genocide there. In April 2012, Viktor Bout, perhaps the single biggest private arms trader in the world, was convicted in a New York court and sentenced to twenty-five years in prison.Д«out, a Russian citizen, began his private business as a military transporter and weapons supplier in the early 1990s following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Military surplus machine guns for sale