1990s It is believed that Bout as a former member of the Soviet military was perfectly positioned to purchase surplus Soviet-era military equipment, including three
Antonov An-12 aircraft, in the years following the
collapse of the Soviet Union. According to Bout's personal website, he founded an air freight business, Air Cess, in
Liberia in 1995. Reportedly, Bout's companies legally provided air freight services to the
French government, the United Nations, and the United States, including transporting flowers, frozen chicken,
UN peacekeepers, French soldiers, and African heads of state. Beginning in 1994, Bout made shipments for the pre-Taliban government of Afghanistan, which later became the
Northern Alliance, and knew one of its commanders,
Ahmad Shah Massoud. The
Central Intelligence Agency described Bout-owned planes as transporters of
small arms and
ammunition into Afghanistan. formerly used by Bout's Centrafrican Airlines . The weapons may have been destined for use in the Angolan Civil War by
UNITA, the opposing faction of the MPLA which Bout had aided during his military service. Another suspected arms dealer, Imad Kebir, is said to have employed Bout's aircraft during the mid-1990s to transport weapons to Africa from
Eastern European states. The cargo supposedly had end-user certificates from
Zaire, but the true end-user was UNITA in neighboring Angola. In Liberia, Bout was suspected of supplying
Charles Taylor with arms for use in the
First Liberian Civil War, with eyewitnesses claiming that the two met personally. In 1993, Bout began collaborating with Richard Chichakli. In 1995 the
Sharjah International Airport in the
United Arab Emirates hired Chichakli to be the commercial manager of its new
free-trade zone. Bout began using the UAE's free trade zone, and Chichakli was, at one time, called Bout's "financial manager" by the United States. Supposedly, Bout had been involved with arms dealings during the
Yugoslav Wars, especially with the
Bosnian government forces during its uprising against the
Milošević government in
Yugoslavia.
Hasan Čengić, who was the former Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister of the
Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina is allegedly one of his former contacts. They came into contact with each other as they both stayed in
Tehran during the 1980s and 1990s. The
Slobodna Bosna newspaper claims that Čengić was a business partner of Bout since then, when 200,000
AK-47 rifles went missing in transit from Bosnia to
Iraq in May 2006. One of Bout's airlines was the carrier.
2000s After the 2001
United States invasion of Afghanistan, Bout appeared in Moscow and stated that his aircraft made regular flights to Afghanistan, but continued to deny any contact with al-Qaeda or the Taliban—instead supplying the rebel Northern Alliance. Soon after the beginning of the
War in Afghanistan, al-Qaeda is said to have moved gold and cash out of Afghanistan. In 2004, Bout and Chichakli allegedly set up Samar Airlines in
Tajikistan to conduct
money laundering activities and protect assets from authorities, according to an indictment by the U.S. Justice Department in 2010. Bout is suspected of supplying weapons to numerous armed groups in Africa in the 2000s, particularly in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo during the
Second Congo War. He may have employed some 300 people and operated 40 to 60 aircraft. Bout's network allegedly delivered
surface-to-air missiles to
Kenya to be used to
attack an Israeli airliner during takeoff in 2002. Bout was reportedly seen meeting with
Hezbollah officials in
Lebanon during the run-up to the
2006 Lebanon War, while some sources claim he was actually in Russia when the meeting took place. In 2007, the
Los Angeles Times reported that the U.S. government and its contractors paid Bout-controlled firms roughly $60 million to fly supplies into Iraq in support of American forces, describing Bout as a "linchpin" for American supply lines in Iraq. ==Investigation==