March 7, 2008
BANGKOK - Thai police said Friday they had launched a nationwide manhunt for Andrew Smulian, an associate of top Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout who has been arrested in Bangkok.
Thai police arrested Bout at a luxury Bangkok hotel on Thursday, in a sting operation conducted with US anti-drug agents.
Four other Russians and a Briton were arrested but later released, said the Thai investigating officer, Lieutenant Colonel Nondhawat Amaranonda.
Nondhawat told reporters Smulian was believed to be still in Thailand.
Bout, dubbed by a British government minister as a "Merchant of Death" for his role arming rebels from Africa to South America, arrived in Thailand early Thursday on an Aeroflot flight, he said.
"We arrested him on charges of providing weapons and providing financial support for terrorism," Nondhawat said.
Bout and Smulian are wanted in the United States on charges of conspiracy to provide material support or resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization, according to AFP.
They could face up to 15 years in jail if extradited to the United States and convicted.
Bout did not have any weapons on him at the time of his arrest, and he did not resist Thai police, Nondhawat added.
Bout has been linked to civil wars in Africa, Afghanistan's Taliban, Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network and Marxist rebels in South America.
Undercover agents from the US Drug Enforcement Administration first got close to Bout and Smulian in February 2007, recording conversations in which the pair allegedly agreed to supply weapons.
In a series of meetings from the Netherlands Antilles to Romania, Smulian allegedly told undercover agents posing as Colombian FARC rebels that Bout had 100 surface to air missiles available and could also provide helicopters.
He allegedly said Bout could also provide armour-piercing rocket launchers and arrange to have the weapons dropped into Colombian territory using combat parachutes for a charge of five million dollars.
In between the meetings, Smulian is alleged to have discussed the deal with Bout over a cellphone provided by the undercover agents, while Bout allegedly told Smulian the weapons were ready to be delivered.
It was during their last such arranged meeting on Thursday that Bout was arrested.
