Vincent Crouzet worked for a long time for the DGSE, the French external secret services. Between the end of the 1990s and the beginning of the 2000s, he infiltrated arms trafficking circles in South Africa, in order to feed French intelligence on African conflicts. In Johannesburg, he rubbed shoulders with Viktor Bout for several years, who would later be nicknamed the “merchant of death” and who would largely inspire the character of Yuri Orlov, played by Nicolas Cage in the Hollywood blockbuster. lord of war. At that time, this Russian-Tajik businessman barely 30 years old frequented the most glaucous establishments of Johannesburg, while talking as equals with army generals. Its reliability will earn it an express ascent… which will not escape the DGSE.
Arrested in 2008, sentenced to 25 years in prison for arms trafficking in 2012 and imprisoned in the United States, Viktor Bout was exchanged, this Thursday, December 8, against the American basketball player Brittney Griner, imprisoned in Russia. As soon as he landed on Russian soil, the arms dealer affirmed his support for Vladimir Putin and the war in Ukraine. “If I had the opportunity and the necessary skills, I would volunteer” at the front, even dared to declare Bout. Interview on one of the biggest arms traffickers in history with Vincent Crouzet, recent author of Save Zelensky !, (Robert Laffont), under the pseudonym of Victor K..
L’Express: How did you meet Viktor Bout?
Vincent Crouzet: In the 1990s, I worked for an entity of the DGSE which collected intelligence on crisis areas, and I was “specialized” in southern and central Africa, more particularly on guerrilla movements and wars civil. The DGSE monitored aerial actors and other traffickers who operated in these theaters of operation. As such, one of my jobs was to approach these “pirates”, mainly in Kinshasa and Johannesburg, in South Africa, from where they radiated. Among these operators, there was Viktor Bout, then in the ascending phase in his business. It is in this context that I came into contact with him. The DGSE never worked with Bout. On the other hand, France retained a high level of information on these African fractures thanks to our infiltration in this medium.
Viktor Bout was barely 30 years old. Was he already in charge of arms trafficking in Africa?
It was not necessarily the owner, but Viktor Bout was essential. He was the only operator in the area who controlled the entire chain, from the arms manufacturer to their delivery to customers. This is how he was able to offer unbeatable prices, below the market. He had large arms stocks, particularly in Transnistria. He started by delivering AK-47 rifles, that is to say Kalashnikovs, then he moved on to surface-to-air missiles, anti-tank missiles.
It also had the best fleet of planes, including many Antonovs and Ilyushins, with pilots from the Red Army, Russian, Moldovan or Belarusian nationalities. And he drove himself on occasion, especially when the delivery was particularly sensitive! At the time, in the African states at war, he was not called the “merchant of death”, but “The postman”, the postman. Because he was incredibly reliable. Where its competitors could have problems with deadlines or arrivals, it always delivered on time, even in a few days. He offered a kind of “ready to go” formula.
Was he a kind of Uber of weapons before his time?
It’s exactly that. Viktor Bout was the Deliveroo of weapons. Which also explains why he is still alive. It is very complicated to last in the middle of the weapons because when you provide a camp, the other camp wants to neutralize you. Bout was also the subject of an assassination attempt in Johannesburg in those years. But where he was strong was that he usually supplied both sides. He succeeded because he naturally inspired confidence, he was someone calm and determined, not at all excited. There was no ideology in the way he did it, it was just business. And not only the arms trade, by the way. It was a predominant player in air freight in this zone. His companies also transported flowers, for example, sent from Africa to Europe.
How much did Viktor Bout get rich during those years?
I don’t know, but I would say that today his fortune amounts to maybe something like 200 or 300 million dollars. No more. At the time, he knew almost no luxury, except that of going down from time to time at the Michelangelo, a five-star hotel in Johannesburg. He invested everything he earned in new planes, new businesses. He had no driver or bodyguard. He was accessible, you could easily meet him at the Le Piston café, at the Rand cargo airport near Johannesburg. He showed up on the tarmacs, wasn’t so secretive. In the evening, he often went out to nightclubs, at the Sankaï in Rosebank, in the suburbs. It was there, in this somewhat shady atmosphere, that alliances were sealed, that traffickers were reconciled with such a general or such an airplane pilot.
What did the South African power know of these traffics?
Of course, it was illegal, but at the time, South Africa was a bit like the Wild West, with a lot of corruption in high places. The South African power let things happen, it allowed them to know what was going on on the continent.
The president was Nelson Mandela, but he didn’t deal with that at all, it was more about other people in the government. All this business also made it possible to support former members of the South African intelligence services, executives of the apartheid regime. As it was above all necessary not to provoke a crisis within the regime, no one said anything.
At that time, were you aware that Viktor Bout was close to Russian intelligence?
No, honestly I found out much later, when he was arrested in 2008. But that’s not what I was asked to know. In any case, in these circles, it is obvious that everyone was more or less an intelligence service provider. Me, I was mainly trying to find out who Bout’s partners were, to whom he was delivering. We did not prevent anything because at the time the gain of intelligence exceeded the gain of hindrance.