The trial of Viktor Bout is scheduled to start Tuesday in a federal court in Manhattan.

Bout was brought to the United States last year after he was captured in Thailand in 2008. US narcotics agents had lured him there for a business meeting that put him face to face with US operatives posing as anti-American rebels. He was arrested after the meeting, setting off a two-year struggle between the US and Russia that ended when he was transferred to New York for trial.

Bout has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy charges that carry a potential life sentence.