Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
THE SET-UP
him with a broken back. nd addicted to adventure, elp. Damien says: “Snow ar world to Viktor Bout. me airfields, in the same with the same wars going r two decades. in to do what no one else hem access to Bout. been no operan
the team uelan drug mirez, launn for him to was arrested money and e operation to t of Death. English busismulian, who oduced him to d Bout knew each other usly met in Moscow. an he had been asked to raft missiles and military the terrorist Fuerzas onarias de Colombia. promise of millions of ssion, Smulian agreed to icardo, who were posing nders. They were ideally suited to the role. Ex-policeman and drug dealer Carlos was the DEA’S top undercover agent, nicknamed the King of the Sting. Ricardo was a former FARC commander who sold drugs for guns before joining the DEA to escape a Panama prison cell. Yet it was Mike’s quick-thinking that convinced Smulian to call Bout and make a deal. Damien says: “Snow did much more than provide access to Bout. He stepped into the most high-profile hunt ever with no training and did a remarkable job.”
The team still had to convince Bout to meet them outside Russia and use a camera hidden in a keyring to record the deal. After months of negotiation Bout agreed to meet them in Bucharest but he pulled out after as his staff warned him he would be arrested if he set foot in Romania. Desperate to keep the sting alive the team offered to meet him in Thailand where he felt safer. This time he came but the mission almost failed because the Thai police went to the wrong room.
Bout was seconds from slipping away when armed officers burst into the room and arrested him. He was extradited to the
US in 2008 and jailed for 25 years. Russia has reportedly offered to hand over CIA whistleblower Edward Snowden to the US in exchange for his release. Smulian got five years for his part in the deal.
Mike and his family were put in a witness protection programme to give evidence at the trial but he was diagnosed with cancer and was too ill to take part.
Ever the survivor, he beat his cancer into remission only to suffer a stroke earlier this year. Struggling to speak, he still managed to send us a few lines on capturing the Merchant of Death.
He said: “The hunt for Viktor Bout was a major adventure. That was what I lived for, so I had to give it a go.
“It was like a Hollywood production but on film sets people have scripts to work to. In this world you have to make it up as you go along.”
Surely it is only a matter of time before
Mike’s adventure is turned into a real Hollywood production.
Operation Relentless by Damien Lewis is out on Thursday, published by Quercus.