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DEA Informant Testifies in Viktor Bout Trial

By Jeralyn, Section Crime in the News
Posted on Wed Oct 19, 2011 at 04:08:29 PM EST
Tags: Viktor Bout (all tags)
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Earlier, it was reported that the DEA informant in the Viktor Bout case was paid $1.5 million. Scratch that, it was $8 million and rising. Former Guatemalan soldier and drug dealer turned DEA informant, Carlos Sagastume, testified yesterday in the trial of accused arms dealer Viktor Bout.

Sagastume testified his supplier in Guatemala got busted and Mexican police took him to Mexico, where he was freed after paying a $60,000 "ransom." He then contacted the U.S. embassy offering to be an informant for the DEA. The DEA brought him to the U.S. in 1998 and he's been working as a paid informant for them ever since. He's made over 150 cases and says it's the best paying employment he's ever had.

He testified that he has been paid $1.6 million by the DEA and $7.5 million by the State Department. He said he raked in $250,000 from the Bout case alone, and hopes to earn more money from the case.

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As part of his role in the Bout DEA sting, the DEA flew him to Curacao.

Sagastume was to play a "negotiator" for the FARC. Another informant, "Ricardo," would be his "comandante."

Bout was arrested at a hotel in Thailand after meeting with the pretend guerrillas and extradited to the U.S. He's charged with conspiring to kill Americans and US officials, illegal surface-to-air missile trafficking, and supporting terrorism through cooperation with the Colombian terrorist organization FARC.

Bout says he was negotiating to sell two airplanes, not arms. His co-defendant, who initially got caught up in the sting, has pleaded guilty and is cooperating with the government against Bout.

A prior "catch" of informant Sagastume was Monzer al Kassar, (Indictment here.)who was convicted and sentenced to 30 years following a sting very much like the one used on Bout. Al-Kassar's conviction was upheld last month, and the Second Circuit ruled lies by the DEA to to those it is trying to trap in order to get jurisdicti