Tom Pasquarello, retired regional director of the DEA who helped arrest arms dealer Viktor Bout in 2008, sharply criticized the prisoner exchange that saw the notorious criminal sent back to Russia…
“I’m kind of in disbelief that someone with the potential to orchestrate arms deals that can kill Americans anywhere in the world would be traded for a prisoner,” Tom Pasquarello toldBout, 56, dubbed the “Merchant of Death,” had been serving a 25-year sentence in federal prison for selling tens of millions of dollars worth of weapons that were to be used to kill Americans when he was freed and put on a plane to Moscow.
The DEA had its agents pose as members of FARC, the Colombian narco-terror group, looking to buy missiles to shoot down US planes and guns to kill American soldiers. “I’ve heard that Viktor’s not a threat, that he can’t travel anymore, that he’s going to be isolated,” the veteran law enforcement official said. “He was like that for 10 years before we arrested him. He knew he couldn’t go anywhere and he still operated from his safe spots.”
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