A beefy man with sharp blue eyes, Bout was escorted by 15 police and heavily armed commandos as he was paraded in handcuffs Friday before the media. -- PHOTO: AFP

The Russian, arrested at a hotel hours after landing in Bangkok on an Aeroflot flight from Moscow on Thursday, faced a charge of 'seeking or gathering assets for terrorism,' in line with an international warrant, Police Lieutenant General Adisorn Nonsee Adisorn said.

Bout, charged in New York with conspiring to sell weapons worth millions of dollars to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, faces up to 10 years in jail if found guilty in Thailand.

The United States, which has given billions of dollars in military aid to Colombia to fight the Marxist rebels and drug cartels, plans to seek Bout's extradition, but Adisorn said that would have to wait until after he was tried in Thailand.

'Bout has to be tried in Thailand before extradition,' Mr Adisorn told a news conference where Bout was paraded for the media, guarded by heavily-armed Thai police commandos.

But a senior official said Thai police would move as quickly as possible after Bout was arrested on international arrest warrants as the US authorities were already working on his extradition with Thai prosecutors.

VIDEO Arms dealer arrested in Thailand (0:54) Hunt for arms dealer Bout ends in police stakeout at plush hotel BANGKOK - THE law finally caught up with Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout in an opulent five-star hotel in Bangkok when armed police stormed a room, ending a global quest to pin down the alleged gun-runner. Bout, who is being held in Thailand on charges of conspiring to sell millions of dollars of weapons to Colombian FARC rebels, has been accused of providing arms for bloody civil wars all over the world. ... more Brother promises rescue of arms dealer Bout MOSCOW - THE arrest of international arms dealer Viktor Bout was strongly criticised on Friday by his brother, who insisted the arrest was made on trumped up charges. Speaking on Echo of Moscow radio, Sergei Bout said his brother Viktor's arrest in Thailand had been on 'mythical charges.' ... more

'I think the Americans are working on two fronts - the DEA to get police to arrest him and other agencies to get the Office of the Attorney-General to extradite him,' Major-General Surapol Thuanthong told reporters.

Five Freed
Asked to comment if Washington would want to extradite Bout before he finished any Thai sentence, Drug Enforcement Administration regional director Thomas Pasquarello told reporters: 'The attorneys between the two nations will be working that out.'

Bout and an associate, Andrew Smulian, are charged in New York with agreeing to sell weapons to the FARC including surface-to-air missile systems and armour-piercing rocket launchers between November 2007 and last month.

Smulian, 46, was charged with conspiring to provide material support to a terrorist organisation.

If convicted in the United States, both men face up to 15 years in prison.

It was not clear whether Smulian was among five foreigners with Bout and later freed, Maj Gen Surapol said.

The DEA wanted the Thai police to arrest Smulian, but a Thai court declined to issue a warrant citing a lack of evidence, he added.

Four other Russians and a Briton were with Bout when he was arrested but freed because there was no evidence they were involved in any wrongdoing, Surapol said.

Bout, due to appear in court for a formal detention hearing on Saturday, had said nothing to investigators since his arrest, Maj Gen Surapol said, and kept his mouth shut at the news conference.

His only comment was on his arrest, when he told police 'The game is over', Maj Gen Surapol said.

The FARC is fighting a four-decade-old insurgency against the Colombian government and is designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the US State Department. -- REUTERS