A jury has heard intercepted tapes in which alleged ‘arms dealer’ Viktor Bout talks with an informer of a USA security service who poses as a leader of an insurgent group in the Revolutionary Arms Forces of Colombia, or FARC.  

For the first time the jurors heard Bout’s discussing the details of a potential deal to provide FARC with arms, which also included its transportation and maintenance. The conversations on the record are mostly in Spanish.

The prosecutor handed out the transcripts of the talk, translated into English, to members of the jury. He read out the fragments of the conversations, which he said were most significant.

“It came as no surprise. The jurors heard the prosecutor, who drew their attention to the fragments, pulled out of the document. We look forward to the word of defense,” Mrs Alla Bout said.

He added that the witness of the prosecution was not credible, because of his past as a drag trafficker and one of the most well paid informers of the Drug Enforcement Agency.

According to Russia Mafia (rumafia.com), Bout pleads non-guilty.