AP INVESTIGATION: Nuclear Smugglers Shopped Radioactive Material to IS, Other Terrorists
Last edited Tue Oct 6, 2015, 10:26 PM - Edit history (3)
Source: Associated Press
@AP: BREAKING: AP INVESTIGATION: Nuclear smugglers shopped radioactive material to IS and other terrorists.
Europe
AP INVESTIGATION: Nuclear smugglers shopped radioactive material to IS and other terrorists
By Associated Press October 6 at 9:03 PM
CHISINAU, Moldova (AP) Over the pulsating beat at an exclusive nightclub, the arms smuggler made his pitch to a client: 2.5 million euros for enough radioactive cesium to contaminate several city blocks.
- snip -
But the smuggler, Valentin Grossu, wasn't sure the client was for real and he was right to worry. The client was an informant, and it took some 20 meetings to persuade Grossu that he was an authentic Islamic State representative. Eventually, the two men exchanged cash for a sample in a sting operation that landed Grossu in jail.
The previously unpublicized case is one of at least four attempts in five years in which criminal networks with suspected Russian ties sought to sell radioactive material to extremists through Moldova, an investigation by The Associated Press has found. One investigation uncovered an attempt to sell bomb-grade uranium to a real buyer from the Middle East, the first known case of its kind.
In that operation, wiretaps and interviews with investigators show, a middleman for the gang repeatedly ranted with hatred for America as he focused on smuggling the essential material for an atomic bomb and blueprints for a dirty bomb to a Middle Eastern buyer.
In wiretaps, videotaped arrests, photographs of bomb-grade material, documents and interviews, AP found that smugglers are explicitly targeting buyers who are enemies of the West. The developments represent the fulfillment of a long-feared scenario in which organized crime gangs are trying to link up with groups such as the Islamic State and al-Qaida both of which have made clear their ambition to use weapons of mass destruction.
The sting operations involved a partnership between the FBI and a small group of Moldovan investigators, who over five years went from near total ignorance of the black market to wrapping up four sting operations. Informants and police posing as connected gangsters penetrated the smuggling networks, using old-fashioned undercover tactics as well as high-tech gear from radiation detectors to clothing threaded with recording devices.
But their successes were undercut by striking shortcomings: Kingpins got away, and those arrested evaded long prison sentences, sometimes quickly returning to nuclear smuggling, AP found.
For strategic reasons, in most of the operations arrests were made after samples of nuclear material had been obtained rather than the larger quantities. That means that if smugglers did have access to the bulk of material they offered, it remains in criminal hands.
Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/9f77a17c001f4cf3baeb28990b0d92eb/ap-investigation-nuclear-smugglers-sought-terrorist-buyers
yurbud
(39,405 posts)bemildred
(90,061 posts)And I could see some crook in Ukraine getting his hands on some, there were warnings about that.
But the story is woefully lacking in details.
yurbud
(39,405 posts)He had to be pressed to say it, but there was a simple, logical reason: once it's out of your hands, you have zero control over it, but if it goes off somewhere, the retaliation will come back to you.
uhnope
(6,419 posts)bemildred
(90,061 posts)There are Russian ethnics in the breakaway state, so it could be Russians, they have plenty of crooks too, or Romanians, but Ukraine has been in a civil war and that seemed the likely source. There have been warnings about Nuke facility security there too.
And it could be medical waste (cesium was mentioned).
But I tend to think it is War Hype.
still_one
(91,945 posts)TwilightGardener
(46,416 posts)AZ Progressive
(3,411 posts)There will be some big scandal or story that will get the public's attention while the members of congress vote the TPP through...
Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)Lose the tinfoil for an hour or two...
LuvLoogie
(6,854 posts)Be ascared!
Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)What credible news source launches a story with ine sentence?
Even if it is AP?
Which, by the way, has never apologized or acknowledged their deliberate distortion of an Iran nuclear facility story in August, did you, AP?
Hissyspit
(45,788 posts)The 'will update' was me. Sorry it took awhile to find the link.
But yeah, annoying they Tweeted this out with no link
Depaysement
(1,835 posts)Hissyspit
(45,788 posts)Crowman1979
(3,844 posts)Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)Or that the seller, who apparently got a short jail term for the "samplings" (nuclear medicine waste?) was not just a con man looking for a quick buck?
I smell yellowcake fumes wafting in from Niger.
uhnope
(6,419 posts)Response to Hissyspit (Original post)
1000words This message was self-deleted by its author.
Duppers
(28,094 posts)frizzled
(509 posts)Why would they do that?