Former US Drug Enforcement Administration officials involved in the attempt will bring Victor Booth’s “Merchant of Death”. Justice described his trade to Russia for the freedom of WNBA star Brittney Griner as a “disgrace” and a “serious threat” to US national security.
Greener, who was has been in prison in Russia since February, was released Thursday to applause from Biden administration officials. But former DEA officials have previously spoken out against the release of Booth, a convicted Russian arms dealer, and at least one former DEA special agent, Derek Maltz, denounced the news as “a blow to the rule of law.”
“Americans should be very careful when traveling around the world. This decision put Americans at tremendous risk,” Maltz tweeted Thursday, calling Bout’s arrest a “total disgrace.” He directed the agents who secured Bhutto’s arrest in Thailand in 2008. Before his release, Booth was serving a 25-year sentence in federal prison on charges of conspiracy to kill Americans in connection with his support for a Colombian terrorist organization in 2011.
BIDEN DOESN’T MENTION RUSSIAN ARMS DEALER VICTOR BOOTH IN REMARKS TO EXCHANGE BRITNEY GREENER
Suspected Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout (R) walks past makeshift cells before a hearing at a criminal court in Bangkok on August 20, 2010.
(Christophe Archambault/AFP via Getty Images)
After reports in May that Bhutto could be exchanged, one former official said the exchange would be a “slap in the face” for those who worked tirelessly to put him behind bars.
Michael Brown, former chief of operations for the US Drug Enforcement Administration, wrote article for Foreign Policy magazine in August that Booth was “dangerous.” Brown, who has 35 years of experience in federal law enforcement, was given “ultimate oversight” of the operation that led to Booth’s arrest and incarceration.
WNBA star and two-time Olympic gold medalist Brittney Griner is escorted out of court after a hearing in Khimki, near Moscow, Russia, on August 4, 2022.
(AP Photo/Aleksandr Zemlyanichenko, file)
“Exchanging Bout would be more than just a slap in the face to the law enforcement officers and operatives who worked to bring Bout down, many of them risking their lives in the process. It would also pose a serious threat to national security of the United States and his allies,” Brown wrote.
He explained that Booth is a former Russian intelligence officer who became an arms dealer in the 1990s. “By 2003, he had become the world’s preeminent arms dealer, supplying weapons to US terrorist organizations, insurgent groups, drug cartels and rogue regimes around the world,” Brown wrote.
BRITNEY GREENER RELEASED FROM RUSSIAN PRISON IN EXCHANGE FOR CONVICTED ARMS DEALER
Suspected Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout (c) is escorted by police as he arrives for a hearing at the Criminal Court in Bangkok on August 20, 2010.
(Christophe Archambault/AFP via Getty Images)
“Booth’s vast international enterprise can ‘transport tons of tanks, helicopters and weapons to virtually anywhere in the world,’ according to the US government,” he continued. “It has caused particular damage in Africa, where insurgent and terrorist groups have killed hundreds of thousands of innocents with their weapons, as depicted in the Nicolas Cage film Lord of war. Weapons that Bout sold to the Taliban were used against US and NATO forces in Afghanistan.”
The US government sanctioned Bout in 2004 and in 2006 directed the DEA to seek his arrest under counter-narcotics laws. Two years later, the DEA jointly conducted a special operation with the Thai police saw Bhutt’s arrest in Bangkok. He was convicted on apparent claims of conspiring to sell weapons, including man-portable anti-aircraft missile systems used against US personnel in Colombia, saying he had “been at war with the United States … for 10 to 15 years”. .”
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Brown predicted that if released, Booth could become a Russian asset, “planning and executing covert supply missions in support of Russian proxies, such as the Wagner Group, in Africa, Venezuela and other hot spots.”
“A trade fight would also encourage Moscow and other rogue regimes to take Americans hostage, worsening the precedent set by Biden earlier this year when Biden traded Trevor Reed, an American held by Russia, for another Russian criminal imprisoned in the United States,” Brown warned. “We can expect Moscow to double down on taking Americans hostage to trade for Russian cybercriminals — who also often work part-time for Russian intelligence services — who are extradited to the United States by allied nations.”
Fox News reached out to Maltz and Brown for further comment.
