It’s a bad week for Russians doing illegal stuff. First it was the Russina spies now its a Russian arms dealer known as the Merchant of Death. He was convicted Wednesday in Manhattan of selling millions of dollars in military weaponry to Colombian terrorists aiming to attack US soldiers. Hit the jump to read the rest of the story.
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Viktor Bout, a former Soviet military officer, was convicted on four counts of conspiring to kill Americans, exporting anti-aircraft missiles and aiding terrorists – the Colombian FARC.

He was busted in an elaborate 2008 sting operation in Thailand, where he tried the hard sell on undercover DEA informants posing as Colombian terrorists flush with drug money.

Prosecutors said the faux terrorists made it clear they wanted surface-to-air missiles to take down American helicopter pilots in Colombia.

“We want to knock down those American sons of bitches,” one of the DEA agents is heard telling Bout on a secret tape played in court.

Bout’s lawyers said he was trying to play the FARC, hoping only to unload two old cargo planes for $5 million.

The Manhattan Federal Court jury, which heard the case over about three weeks, reached a verdict after eight hours of deliberation.

The jury forewoman looked straight at Bout as she pronounced the final “guilty.”

He did not meet her eye.

Bout’s wife and daughter, who attended nearly all of the trial, were not in the courtroom to hear the verdict.

Bout, 44, faces life in prison at his sentencing, set for Feb 8.

US Attorney Preet Bharara hailed the “swift verdict.”

“Justice has been done and a very dangerous man will be behind bars,” he said.

“Viktor Bout was ready to sell a weapons arsenal that would be the envy of some small countries.”

Bout’s lawyer, Kenneth Kaplan, said the defense would appeal the verdict.

“We are disappointed. We gave it a good fight. We still have legal options,” Kaplan said.

He called his client “resolute.”

“He’s a strong man. He accepts the verdict,” Kaplan said.

Bout was known in the 1990s as “Sanctions Buster” after his ability to evade arms embargoes against Africa’s bloodier regimes.

He has extensive ties to Russia’s intelligence agencies.

The 2005 Nicolas Cage flick “Lord of War” is based in part on tales of Bout’s gun-running and a 2007 book was published about him called “Merchant of Death: Money, Guns, Planes, and the Man Who Makes War Possible.”

DN