Warrant Issued for Russian Arms Broker Tied to Al Qaeda

Belgian authorities have issued an arrest warrant for Victor Bout, a Russian arms trafficker suspected of helping Al Qaeda terrorists and supplying weapons to violent uprisings across Africa.

The filing of a warrant on suspicion of money laundering represents the first formal move by any government against Bout, whose elusiveness while allegedly transporting weapons to Africa and Afghanistan has frustrated diplomats and law enforcement officials for more than a decade.

The action may set off diplomatic wrangling as the Belgians try to locate Bout and apprehend him. It came after years of international pressure that failed to stop him from doing business. Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, allegations that Bout aided Al Qaeda and Taliban militants have heightened scrutiny of his activities and lent urgency to the efforts to dismantle his far-flung network of cargo planes and pilots.

A Belgian prosecutor issued the warrant against Bout last week, the climax of a four-year probe into his alleged funneling of millions of dollars from arms-trafficking profits in Africa and Asia into Belgium.

“If he can be brought to Belgium, everything will be done to bring him to justice,” a Belgian official said.

Belgian officials were uncertain Monday where to find Bout and whether they could win his extradition. One official said authorities suspect that Bout is in Russia.

Bout, who owns an apartment in a five-story building in Moscow, is believed by American officials to have been in Russia as recently as last week.

The Belgian official said U.S. pressure may be needed to persuade the Russian government to extradite Bout, who has been known to use five Russian passports as he hopscotches around the world. Bout has been traced to Russia and the United Arab Emirates since last spring despite a U.N. travel ban imposed on him. He has owned residences in the Emirates, on the Belgian coast and in several places in Africa.

“If we want the Russians to move in that regard, then I think we will need some pressure from Washington,” the Belgian official said.

American officials appear willing to provide “reasonable assistance,” said a source familiar with U.S. interest in the case.

Russian officials were not available late Monday to comment on the Belgian arrest warrant. But media reports that Bout might be in Russia prompted the country’s Interior Ministry last week to look into whether he was there and whether he could be extradited. Belgian officials said they were concerned that the Russians might not be willing to “give up one of their nationals.”

Andrei Polyakov, a spokesman for the Russian Interior Ministry, said last week that the department was trying “to find out who Victor Bout is, whether he committed any crimes and where he can be found. This information is being thoroughly examined and checked now.”

Tatyana Matyunina, of the prosecutor general’s office, said her bureau needed information from the Interior Ministry before deciding whether Bout could be extradited.

Repeated calls to the Moscow apartment owned by Bout went unanswered. Near the apartment’s massive metal door, a neighbor deflected questions about Bout and threatened to call the police.

“He is not home!” the neighbor said.

The Belgians have referred the warrant against Bout to Interpol, the global law enforcement agency, which has been conducting its own probe of Bout’s activities for two years.

“This man has escaped justice wherever he has been,” said Harjit Sandhu, an Indian government police official who worked for Interpol and has investigated Bout’s activities for the United Nations. “His tentacles are spread everywhere, and the U.S. role of global policeman here is essential.”

U.S. national security and diplomatic officials have pressed European, African and Persian Gulf nations in recent years to move against Bout.

A former U.S. official involved in efforts to halt his arms shipments said the Belgian warrant was “an extremely encouraging development.” Lee S. Wolosky, formerly a National Security Council aide who directed the Office of Transnational Threats, said that “the Russians should execute the warrant, and I am confident the Bush administration will urge them to do so.”

In the weeks after Sept. 11, the U.S. effort against Bout appeared to make strides after a close associate of his approached authorities and offered details about the Russian’s work on behalf of Al Qaeda.

Since late September, U.S. authorities have interviewed the informant, a Kenyan diamond mine owner and intimate of African dictators, in Belgium and Washington. The informant, Sanjivan Ruprah, told a Belgian arms-trafficking expert that he had knowledge of plane-leasing arrangements between Bout’s organization and Al Qaeda operatives.

Ruprah was arrested in early February by Belgian police and charged with money laundering and conspiracy after a separate investigation that grew out of the larger Bout probe, Belgian prosecutor Dirk Merckx confirmed recently. Ruprah is being held in a Brussels jail, charged with money laundering, conspiracy and possession of false documents.

Ruprah’s willingness to cooperate with U.S. and Belgian investigators seemed less certain last week after his lawyer denounced authorities, saying they manipulated world opinion in the case.

But other evidence has surfaced that bolsters the Kenyan’s references to Bout’s leasing arrangements with Al Qaeda.

Sandhu said Monday that U.N. investigators had obtained a document indicating that Bout leased planes to Ariana Airlines, the national carrier of Afghanistan. The Times reported last month that Taliban officials had hired Air Cess, one of Bout’s Emirates-based air cargo firms, to work with Ariana to funnel arms and military supplies to Afghanistan.

The document, obtained during the U.N.’s investigation of arms shipments to West Africa, “shows that Bout was definitely working with the Taliban,” Sandhu said. The evidence detailed how Bout “leased planes to Ariana for transshipment of cargo.”

Sandhu is an expert on money laundering who investigated Bout’s activities as part of a panel researching massive arms shipments into the West African country of Liberia. The document did not overtly describe arms shipments, Sandhu said, but the phrase “scientific equipment” was often used on Bout’s contracts to refer to clandestine shipments of weapons and military gear.

The Belgian money-laundering investigation of Bout tracked movement over the last four years of “millions in Belgian francs” from the African arms trade, Sandhu said.

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Sergei L. Loiko of The Times’ Moscow Bureau contributed to this report.