Former US Drug Enforcement Administration officials who were involved in the effort to bring “merchant of death” Viktor Bout to justice have called his trade with Russia for the freedom of WNBA star Brittney Griner a “shame” and a “major threat” to US national security.
Griner, who has been detained in Russia since February, was released Thursday to applause from Biden administration officials. But former DEA officials had previously spoken out against trading Bout, a convicted Russian arms dealer, for his release, and at least one former DEA special agent in charge, Derek Maltz, condemned the news as a “blow under the rule of law”.
“Americans should be very careful traveling the world. This decision has put Americans at enormous risk,” Maltz tweeted on Thursday, calling Bout’s arrest a “total disgrace.” He had overseen the officers who secured Bout’s arrest in Thailand in 2008. Prior to his release, Bout was serving a 25-year sentence in federal prison for his 2011 conviction on charges of conspiring to kill Americans in relation to support for a Colombian terrorist organization.
BIDEN NOT TO SPEAK ABOUT RUSSIAN ARMS DEALER VIKTOR IN BRITTNEY GRINER EXCHANGE REMARKS
Suspected Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout (R) walks past temporary cells before a hearing at the Bangkok Criminal Court August 20, 2010.
(CHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBAULT/AFP via Getty Images)
After reports in May indicated that Bout’s trade was a possibility, a former official said the trade would be “a slap in the face” to those who worked tirelessly to put him behind bars.
Michael Braun, former chief of operations at the US Drug Enforcement Administration, wrote in an article for Foreign Policy magazine in August that Bout was “dangerous.” A 35-year veteran of federal law enforcement, Braun was charged with “ultimate oversight” over the operation that led to Bout’s arrest and incarceration.
JAN PETRAEUS ON GRINER RELEASE: I HATE ‘REWARD’ RUSSIA FOR TRADE, VIKTOR BOUT HAS ‘BLOOD ON HANDS’
WNBA star and two-time Olympic gold medalist Brittney Griner is escorted from a courtroom after a hearing in Khimki, just outside Moscow, Russia, August 4, 2022.
(AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, Files)
“Giving Bout over would not only be a slap in the face to the law enforcement and agents who worked to bring Bout down, many risking their lives in the process. It would also pose a major threat to the national security of the United States and its allies Braun wrote.
He explained that Bout was a former Russian intelligence officer who got into the arms trade in the 1990s. “By 2003, he had become the world’s top arms dealer, inundating US-designated terrorist organizations, rebel groups, drug cartels and rogue regimes around the world with weapons,” Braun wrote.
BRITTNEY GRINER RELEASED FROM RUSSIAN PRISON IN EXCHANGE FOR CONVICTED ARMS DEALER
Suspected Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout (C) is escorted by policemen as he arrives for a hearing at the Bangkok Criminal Court August 20, 2010.
(CHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBAULT/AFP via Getty Images)
“Bout’s vast international enterprise could ‘carry tanks, helicopters and weapons by the ton virtually anywhere in the world,’ according to the US government,” he continued. “He did particular damage in Africa, where insurgent and terrorist groups massacred hundreds of thousands of innocents with his weapons, depicted in Nicolas Cage’s film Warlord. The weapons Bout sold to the Taliban have been used against US and NATO forces in Afghanistan.”
The US government targeted Bout with sanctions in 2004, and in 2006 instructed the DEA to seek his arrest under anti-narcoterrorism laws. Two years later, the DEA ran an undercover operation in cooperation with the Thai police which saw Bout arrested in Bangkok. He was convicted based on explicit statements he had made in conspiring to sell weapons, including man-portable surface-to-air missiles, for use against US personnel in Colombia, stating that he had “fought the United States … for 10-15 years.”
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Braun predicted that, if released, Bout could become a Russian asset, “planning and executing clandestine resupply missions in support of Russian proxies such as the Wagner Group in Africa, Venezuela and other hot spots.”
“Trading Bout would also encourage Moscow and other rogue regimes to take Americans hostage, exacerbating the precedent set by Biden’s swap of Russian-held American Trevor Reed for another Russian criminal jailed in the United States earlier this year.” Braun warned. “We can expect Moscow to double down on taking Americans hostage to trade with Russian cybercriminals — who also often moonlight on Russian intelligence — extradited to the United States by allied countries.”
Fox News reached out to Maltz and Braun for further comment.
