Bangkok, Thailand (CNN) -- An accused international arms dealer known as "The Merchant of Death" was extradited to the United States on terrorism charges Tuesday, Thai police said.
Viktor Bout left Thailand on a U.S.-chartered jet, said police Col, Supisarn Bhakdinarunart, chief of the Crime Suppression Bureau.
The chief said agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration escorted Bout, who is a Russian citizen and former Soviet military officer.
The Russian government issued a stiff reaction, blaming the "unprecedented pressure" by the United States on the Thai courts for what it calls an "illegal extradition".
The plane left about 1:30 p.m., after Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva cleared the last obstacle for Bout's extradition.
Bout has been indicted by U.S. authorities on a series of charges, including counts of illegally purchasing U.S. cargo planes to ferry weapons to warring parties and regimes in Africa and the Middle East.
He was arrested in Bangkok in March 2008. DEA agents led a sting operation by posing as members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Bout had been in Thai custody since.
Russia's Foreign Ministry said it regretted that the Thai authorities "yielded to external political pressure".
"From the legal point of view what has happened cannot have any rational explanation or justification," the Foreign Ministry said, according to an Interfax report.
"All this can only be qualified as interference in court practices, which casts doubts on the Thai judiciary and government's independence".
Bout has repeatedly said he has broken no law and that the allegations against him are lies.
He is accused of supplying weapons to war zones around the world, from Sierra Leone to Afghanistan.
CNN
