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Merchant of Death Viktor Bout, Exchanged for Brittney Griner, Brokers $10 Million Arms Deal with Houthis

Oct 7, 2024, 03:41 AM

Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, known as the "Merchant of Death," who was released from a U.S. prison in 2022 in a prisoner swap for basketball star Brittney Griner, is reportedly back in the arms trade. According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, Bout is attempting to broker the sale of $10 million worth of automatic weapons to Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi militants. Houthi emissaries traveled to Moscow in August to negotiate the purchase and encountered Bout during the discussions. Bout, whose life reportedly inspired the 2005 film "Lord of War," spent decades selling weapons across the globe before his imprisonment in the U.S.