March 6, 2008 Russian arms dealer wanted worldwide is captured Play video

(NECN/ABC) - He is one of the world’s most notorious arms dealers, but today, the long, violent run of Viktor Bout ended in a small Bangkok police station.

Handcuffed, the Russian stared back stone-faced at the cameras.

Bout was captured in Bangkok in a sting operation – arrested by undercover agents posing as buyers. His arrest warrant cited charges of supplying arms to rebels in Columbia. But his arms-dealing past stretched across the world.

U.S. officials accuse him of supplying weapons and explosives to the Taliban and Al-Qaida in Afghanistan throughout the 1990s. Flying weapons in and on the same planes, taking drugs out.

More recently, he defied UN arms embargoed to supply weapons to several African war zones.

His arms dealing made Viktor Bout a very rich man. He is believed to have made $50 million from sales to the Taliban alone. Many of his business assets have been frozen and Bout is expected to be handed over to authorities in the U.S.

ABC’s Jim Sciutto has more.