The indictment describes a sophisticated international sting in which Bouterse was recorded meeting in Greece and Panama with people posing as Hezbollah agents and Mexican drug traffickers. In reality, they were actually confidential sources and undercover agents with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the indictment said.
At one July meeting in Greece, the indictment said, Bouterse agreed to take a down payment of $2 million. In return, he said he would help Hezbollah fighters settle in Suriname, give them fake identities and arm them with surface-to-air missiles and other weapons for attacks on the U.S. and the Netherlands, Suriname's former colonial ruler.
Bouterse also told the American agents that he was interested in using Hezbollah "tough guys" for operations inside Suriname itself.
"We need a little fort that we can depend on. And we can call them at any time," he said, according to the indictment.
Bouterse's father, Desi Bouterse, led a military dictatorship in Suriname in the 1980s, then returned to power when he was elected president by the country's parliament in 2010. He has been accused of human rights violations, dating to the period when the country was under military rule, and was convicted in absentia in the Netherlands on drug trafficking charges in 1999.
Desi Bouterse has previously said that he was shocked by his son's arrest, but added that he was "responsible for his own actions."
