Sorry if a dupe, I think I'm the first one.
BANGKOK, Thailand (CNN) -- For years, Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout has made millions of dollars allegedly delivering weapons and ammunition to warlords and militants. Officials believe many of his activities may be illegal, and on Thursday, Thai police announced his arrest.
Bout, 41, has made his deliveries to Africa, Asia and the Mideast, using obsolete or surplus Soviet-era cargo planes.
A formal announcement on his arrest is expected later in the day in New York.
He was picked up in Bangkok but neither police nor U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Cynthia Brown had details on his arrest.
"We can confirm he has been arrested in Bangkok, and we congratulate the Thai authorities on making this arrest," Brown said.
Intelligence agencies around the world have tracked Bout for years. While some of his work has been legitimate, most has not.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has a warrant for Bout's arrest, and the United States could request extradition, but the details are still being worked out, a U.S. government official told CNN.
According to U.S. officials, Bout -- a former Soviet air force officer who speaks multiple languages -- has what is reputed to be the largest private fleet of Soviet-era cargo aircraft in the world.
Bout acquired the planes shortly after the breakup of the Soviet Union, the U.S. Department of Treasury said in 2005.
At that time, the U.S. Treasury announced it was freezing the assets of Bout and his associates who are all tied to former Liberian President Charles Taylor.
Taylor is being tried on war crimes charges by the Special Court for Sierra Leone. The court was set up by the West African country and the United Nations, which is also handling cases against Sierra Leone rebel groups in Freetown.
Stephan Rapp, special prosecutor in the Sierra Leone case, said, "We are very pleased with that."
He said he would offer to provide evidence to any court in the world that may take on the case but he will not seek Bout's extradition.
Asked about specific evidence, he said, "Certainly we would have evidence in his involvement in two shipments." He said without Bout bloody campaigns in which guerrillas killed and mutilated civilians never would have happened.
Intelligence officials said Bout shipped large quantities of small arms to civil wars across Africa and Asia, often taking diamonds in payment from West African fighters.
A 2006 article in "Foreign Policy" magazine said that while Bout served many third-world leaders, he also aided organizations such as the United Nations.
"He made countless trips for the United Nations into the same areas where he supplied the weapons that sparked the humanitarian crises in the first place," the article charged. It said Bout probably committed multiple violations of U.N. arms embargoes.
British intelligence officials found evidence in Afghanistan that Bout had shipped arms to the Taliban and al Qaeda, as well as circumstantial evidence that he shipped weapons technology into Iraq.
And the U.S. government said it received information that Bout profited $50 million from supplying the Taliban with military equipment when they ruled Afghanistan.
Bout -- who is said to be the inspiration for Nicholas Cage's character in the movie, "Lord of War" -- told CNN in an interview in 2002 that he never sold arms to the Taliban or the al Qaeda terrorist network. He also denied providing weapons and missile guidance technology to Iraq.
Bout said his air transport company is legitimate, and he ferried a variety of cargo to Africa and to Afghanistan since 1992.
He denied any of it was done illegally and also denied he was paid in so-called "blood diamonds" from Africa.
"It's a lie," he said. "I never touched diamonds in my life and I'm not a diamond guy and I don't want to go into that business."
Some media reports at the time claimed Bout flew into Afghanistan just before September 11, 2001. Bout told CNN the last time he was in Afghanistan was 1996 and never met terror mastermind Osama bin Laden.
"I've never done anything in my life (for) which I should be afraid," Bout said. "Why should I be having to take chances and risking to do some tricky business and then later on be in the position where you did something extremely wrong?"