'Your papers, please' must never be heard in America

An associate of convicted international arms dealer Viktor Bout has been arrested in Australia in connection with a conspiracy with Bout and others to illegally purchase two aircraft from companies located in the United States, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration boss Michele Leonhart said Thursday.

International arms dealer Viktor Bout, the so-called "Merchant of Death," was extradited Tuesday by Thailand to the United States to stand trial on an indictment unsealed in New York accusing him of conspiracy to finance a fleet of aircraft to arm bloody conflicts and support rogue regimes worldwide.

International arms dealer Viktor Bout, the so-called "Merchant of Death" named in February in a federal grand jury indictment in New York on charges of conspiring to finance an aircraft fleet to arm bloody conflicts and support rogue regimes worldwide, will be returned to the United States to stand trial, a court in Thailand ruled on Friday.