Secrets Declassified with David Duchovny

Tonight on "Secrets Declassified,"

we reveal the global manhunts that cornered

the world's most wanted.

From the 17-year chase for the Unabomber...

It's one of the biggest manhunts

in the history of the FBI.

To the Eastern European warlord

hiding in plain sight.

He ends up becoming the face of a U.S.-based vitamin company

and even writes for a well-being magazine.

And the covert hunt for the world's greatest revolutionary.

One moment, Che Guevara was smoking cigars in Cuba.

The next, he vanished.

These are some of the secret pursuits carried out

in the shadows by governments

and the people who work for them.

It's time to bring them to light.

The best way to catch your prey is to set a trap.

That's what the U.S. DEA does

to catch one of the underworld's

biggest arms traffickers.

To lay the bait, they don't turn to a spy

but a retired bush pilot.

In the early 2000s, U.S. intelligence analysts

start to notice a very worrying trend--

insurgent groups and militias around the world

suddenly have way more advanced weapons.

For the U.S., this is a massive problem

because a lot of these groups are openly hostile

to Western interests.

U.S. intelligence services

wanna find out where the weapons are coming from

and cut the flow off at the source.

It's revealed that many of these weapons

are Soviet issue.

Illegal traffickers are funneling

stockpiles of ex-Soviet arms into rebel hands,

making big money.

By tracking shipments and speaking to informants,

it becomes clear that the king of these traffickers

is one man, Viktor Bout,

better known by his nickname,

the Merchant of Death.

Bout is a former Soviet military officer.

He's running a fleet of about 60 aircraft,

and he's selling everything from assault rifles

to helicopter gunships.

In 2002, Interpol releases

a red notice for Bout, and he becomes a wanted man.

The problem is, he's got friends in very high places.

Bout rarely leaves Russia, where he's widely believed

to be protected by Moscow.

When he does travel, he only goes to other rogue regimes

that won't extradite him.

In 2007, the DEA decides enough is enough.

To up the ante, they'll lure Bout into a trap.

The DEA comes up with a plan.

They're gonna pose as buyers offering him

a multi-million dollar weapons deal.

But to seal it, they're going to insist

that he has to leave Russia.

That way, they can grab him.

They name their plan Operation Relentless.

For it to work at all, they need just the right frontman

to place the bait.

This person needs to be of Bout's world

but also someone the DEA trusts.

There's only one guy who ticks both boxes:

Mike Snow, a British pilot working out of South Africa.

Mike Snow is a former commando

who has spent over a decade flying

bush planes across Africa.

He's no gunrunner, but Snow has spent years

touching down on the same runways that Bout flies into.

He has met many of Bout's cohorts, so they know him,

they know of him, and they trust him.

The DEA reaches out to Snow and asks him to help.

Snow is initially reluctant,

but he's seen what Bout's weapons can do,

the way that they destroy communities

and the way that they shatter lives.

And he wants to do something to prevent that

from happening in the future.

Eventually, he agrees,

and the U.S. pays him $25,000 for his help.

In November 2007, Snow reaches out to Bout

to dangle the bait.

Snow tells Bout's people this concocted backstory

that he recently flew a representative

of a Colombian guerrilla group, and they're looking

for a serious arms supplier.

Given Snow's strait-laced reputation,

this feels a little out of the blue.

Bout actually makes jokes that Snow's U.S. phone number

must be a direct line to the CIA.

But Bout looks into the guy, doesn't see anything

that gives him suspicion.

And listen, the size of this deal

is just a little too tempting for Bout to give up.

Snow's got Bout on the hook.

Now the DEA needs to reel him in.

Snow puts Bout into contact with two

supposed Colombian rebel commanders,

but they're really just undercover DEA agents.

The agents and Snow tell Bout

they need to meet him face to face at a location

that they all feel is secure.

They suggest Romania, Ghana, Morocco, Montenegro,

but they can't seem to find anywhere that Bout feels safe.

Then, as a last ditch, the agent suggests Thailand.

It doesn't have an extradition treaty with the U.S.,

but the DEA believes that Thai authorities

will agree to the deal.

Bout recognizes that Thailand is convenient.

It's easy for him to get there.

And he is operating under the misapprehension

that the United States can't get to him in Thailand.

Bout gets on a plane.

The trap is ready to be sprung, but the DEA doesn't just

need their target in Thailand.

To extradite him, they also need Bout to acknowledge

he knows the weapons he's selling

will be used on U.S. citizens.

In a private conference room at the Sofitel Hotel,

Bout meets the two undercover agents.

Now, they have bugged this entire room

with hidden microphones.

When the meeting begins, one of the undercover agents

asks for dozens of Igla launchers.

Then the agent drops the line that could

blow the whole thing apart--

these missiles are to shoot down American pilots.

Everyone's hanging on his next words.

Finally, he nods and says, we have the same enemy.

Just like that, boom!

It's the clincher-- proof Bout is conspiring

to kill U.S. citizens.

Doors burst open, agents rush in.

After a global hunt spanning nearly a decade,

the Merchant of Death is caught.

In 2011, Bout is convicted

of conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals

and provide material support to a terrorist organization.

He's sentenced to 25 years.

Meanwhile, Mike Snow vanishes,

taking his heroic story with him.

Mike and his family flee Africa

for a witness protection program,

and for years, his story remains hidden.

Then in 2014, journalist Nicholas Schmidle

sits down repeatedly with Viktor Bout

and publishes a detailed exposé.

In it, he lays bare the incredible tale

of Operation Relentless and how one bush pilot

helped bring down the world's biggest arms dealer.

Viktor Bout sheltered out of reach.

Other fugitives hide in plain sight.

For three years, locals in one Eastern European dive bar

drink alongside a mystic healer called Dr. Dragan Dabic.

What they don't know is, he's really

the most wanted warlord on the planet.

In the mid '90s, the newly formed nation

of Bosnia and Herzegovina is being torn apart by civil war.

The two biggest ethnic groups, mostly Muslim Bosniaks

and mostly Christian Bosnian Serbs,

are in a bitter fight for power.

Leading the Bosnian Serb forces

is one of modern history's most brutal leaders,

Radovan Karadzic.

Radovan Karadzic is a former psychiatrist

who is now the political and military leader

of the Bosnian Serbs,

and he is truly an extreme nationalist.

During the war,

he carries out a horrific genocide.

He has Bosniak cities surrounded and starved

and carries out dozens of brutal mass killings.

When the war ends in 1995,

the world cries out for justice.

Karadzic is indicted for genocide by the UN.

But at first, nothing happens at all.

For the first few months after the end of the conflict,

Karadzic is living openly.

But as time passes, he can sense a change.

Karadzic feels that local support is waning

and his arrest may be imminent.

Sometime in 1997, Radovan Karadzic disappears.

To find him, NATO peacekeeping troops

begin a huge manhunt, working closely

with U.S. intelligence forces.

American analysts comb tiny settlements along the border

between Bosnia and Serbia.

They're looking for things like late-night internet logins

in villages that don't normally have power,

or even subscriptions to newspapers.

As pressure to enforce the UN indictment grows,

so does the size of the manhunt.

Soon it's deploying teams of CIA officers,

Delta Force, and even SEAL Team Six.

For eight years, every lead comes up empty.