Profile: Viktor Bout

Mr Bout spotted an opportunity after the USSR's collapse

Russian businessman Viktor Bout - currently in custody in Thailand and wanted in the US - is widely regarded as one of the world's leading arms smugglers.

A former Soviet officer, he launched into a new career after the fall of the USSR, reportedly selling weapons to countries under UN embargo.

According to a 2007 book - Merchant of Death, by security experts Douglas Farah and Stephen Braun - Mr Bout built up his business using military planes left on the airfields of the collapsing Soviet empire in the early 1990s.

These sturdy Antonovs and Ilyushins - along with their crews - were up for sale and easier to maintain than US aircraft.

They were perfect for delivering goods to bumpy wartime airstrips around the world.

Guns and diamonds

Mr Bout is said have begun channelling weapons through a series of front companies to war-torn parts of Africa.

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 Peter Hain, Former UK minister

According to the UN, he supported efforts by former Liberian President Charles Taylor's "to destabilise Sierra Leone and gain illicit access to diamonds".

Mr Bout's early clients also included several Afghan groups during the chaos that preceded the victory of the Taleban in 1995, media reports claim.

Then Mr Bout lived in Belgium, until his trade was highlighted in the local media, prompting the Brussels authorities to issue a warrant for his arrest.

He is then said to have relocated to the United Arab Emirates.

US and UN reports say he extended his operations to many African hotspots, including Angola, the Central African Republic, the Democratic of Congo, the Congo Republic and Sudan.

Colombian connection

The nickname "merchant of death" was coined by British Foreign Office minister Peter Hain.

After reading a 2003 report about him, Mr Hain said: "Bout is the leading merchant of death who is the principal conduit for planes and supply routes that take arms... 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."

Mr Bout was arrested in Bangkok at the behest of the US, in connection with alleged weapons sales to Colombia's Farc rebels.

According to Mr Farah and Mr Braun, in the late 1990s he arranged deliveries of weapons to the guerrillas that enabled them "to greatly enhance their military capabilities".

Their book also says that at one point, Mr Bout had a palatial residence in South Africa - only to have it attacked in an apparent gangland fallout.

In October 2006, US President George W Bush issued an executive order freezing his assets and barring Americans from dealing with him.

Despite the many allegations against him, the arms dealer has never been prosecuted.