DEA surveillance ideas based on from another location presented mobile phone and you will Websites contours mean that Smulian confronted with Fight during the Moscow to your Monday, January 21. Indeed there, the newest hands agent displayed a few pictures of one’s FARC’s elder frontrunners and you can asked Smulian to label the fresh new buyers throughout the images. Centered on Sanders, brand new informants just weren’t members of the fresh new FARC hence performed perhaps not can be found in Bout’s images file, an information that maybe need caused him to think double just before moving in the future toward offer. “Perhaps the guy confident Fight that he are speaking about a lesser peak category than could have been on the pictures,” Farah speculates. Certainly, you will find a monetary added bonus getting Smulian to acquire his workplace to just accept the brand new Colombians just like the members. “I think Smulian need that it topic to undergo” and may also provides “lied to help you Bout regarding the just who these people were,” says Sanders. Whichever happened, Fight is actually sure enough to go-ahead, even stretching a deal to launder money to your FARC (during the 40 % attention) and you can to make sure Smulian you to “people communists try all of our loved ones.” He trained Smulian to set up a meeting with CS-step one, the new informant posing since the all the way down-ranks FARC operative, plus one unknown person in Bout’s system to discuss the specifics of the purchase. Ever concerned about safeguards, Bout led Smulian before you leave Moscow so you can abandon his devices, SIM cards, receipts, and every other facts who “suggest where he was along with exactly who he was meeting,” according to Bout’s indictment.
Both people talked about you’ll appointment locations, considering Cuba, Nicaragua, and Armenia, but could not arrive at a contract, most likely out from the informant’s matter you to definitely regional enforcement in those regions will most likely not work with DEA’s intentions to arrest Fight
He relayed on it a deal from Bout. New Russian had “a hundred bits” (surface-to-air missiles) available, which he said might be “sky decrease with high reliability.” In return, Bout’s process carry out accept commission, presumably from inside the bucks, as obtained during the a remote Colombian airstrip. Making it possible for time to take into account the proposition, the men agreed to meet once more within a few days into the Bucharest, Romania, to carry on the new negotiations.
By now, towards offer nearing their conclusion, the about three DEA informants insisted on the an interviewing Bout just before finalizing the transaction. Bout, it appears to be, has also been fascinated meet up with their new clients. Bucharest are chose for this function, because it try a country to which he had traveled safely before. Nonetheless, Smulian is actually defensive away from their company and you can urged the latest Colombians so you’re able to agree to the offer without conference Bout, outlining that Russian is actually “a very high character figure and you will risked arrest in the event the the guy moved to Romania,” according to government indictment. If the Colombians refuted, Smulian titled Fight myself and passed the phone so you can “El Commandante,” the fresh senior FARC commander.
Out of Moscow, Smulian continued so you’re able to Copenhagen, Denmark, where CS-step one, their dated pal and you may original hookup into package, 
and also the junior FARC medical had been prepared
Along the second a few days, CS-step one, the latest going FARC representatives, and Smulian proceeded to hold talks inside the Bucharest, when Smulian after that clarified the fresh guns becoming used in the latest distribution. Bout would provide a hundred Igla skin-to-heavens missiles, Smulian said, showing the brand new people images and gun specifications towards his computer. If the wished, the deal might were armour-piercing rockets and you will “unique helicopters that wipe out the helicopters,” he said, presumably writing about the fresh new Colombian military, additionally the studies to make use of him or her. Brand new gunships might possibly be armed with advanced level missiles and you can launchers that you will definitely flames around three cycles at the same time, far outmatching people resistance the FARC try going to find. The goods were already in Bulgaria, Smulian said, and you will was in fact able having instant delivery. The new shipment prices alone might be $5 billion. (The value of the latest firearms on their own was not publicly create.) Smulian offered his FARC users having a flash drive which has had photo of one’s weapons assistance he had revealed, in addition to an article about Viktor Fight you to included new hands dealer’s image, allegedly so they really do acknowledge him within a future conference.