A Belgian man believed to be among the biggest arms traffickers in Europe has been arrested in the US. Jacques Monsieur is charged with trying to buy fighter jet engines for Iran, flouting a US embargo. Monsieur is alleged to have sold arms during the 80s and 90s to several countries subject to international arms embargoes, including Bosnia, Croatia, Congo-Brazzaville and Iran.

Monsieur has been accused of negotiating the parts for F-5 fighter jets with an undercover US agent. The plan was to claim the engines were destined for Colombia, when in fact they would be shipped on to the United Arab Emirates and then on to Iran. The alleged arms deal involved meetings in Paris and London and a front company in Kyrgyzstan.

Known as the “Field Marshal,” Monsieur has escaped prosecution several times. In 2000 he was arrested in Iran on espionage charges and sentenced to10 years in prison. The sentence was commuted to a $400,000 fine after he had spent only 18 months in jail. In 2005, while living in France, Monsieur was extradited by Belgium on charges relating to arms sales to Congo-Brazzaville. In 2008 he was given a suspended four year sentence and shortly afterwards he contacted the US undercover agent to negotiate the fighter jets engines for Iran.

It is said that Monsieur has spent two decades doing business in war zones. His specialties are light to medium arms and military aviation parts. He is the latest in a string of elusive gun traffickers to be arrested as a result of global undercover operations by American agents. In 2007, US agents arrested Russian gunrunner Viktor Bout in Thailand and a year later Syrian national Monzer Kassar was arrested in Spain. In both cases, undercover agents posed as representatives of Colombian guerrillas to draw the suspects into arms deals.