| 17 March |
Tanzanian police arrested one
individual last week and seized a container of radioactive cesium. |
| 9 March |
Romanian police announced on 8
March that they are holding two individuals for attempting to sell stolen
radioactive material, according to press reports. A po lice spokesman
announced that two had in their possession 82 kg of radioactive material
including low enriched uranium. Officials also found reportedly secret
documents stolen from the Research and Design Center for Radioactive
Metals. |
| 4 March |
UPDATE (12 February):
According to press reports, Lithuanian officials have determined that the
100 kg of radioactive material seized last month from an armed gang is
uranium-238. This material was stolen from a company responsible for
maintenance at the nearby Ignalina nuclear power plant. |
| 23 February |
According to press reports, the
Belarus Committee for State Security (KGB) seized five kilograms of
cesium-133. The radioactive metal reportedly was sealed in glass
containers. Belarus authorities are investigating the incident, according
to press. |
| 12 February |
Lithuanian authorities
announced that they had arrested seven people and seized nearly 100 kg of
radioactive material, according to press reports. The mate rial, believed
to be uranium, will undergo further tests to ascertain its makeup and
origin. It was emitting 14,000 microroentgens per hour. Some reports
stated that the material was a component of a nuclear fuel assemply which
has been missing from the n early Ignalina nuclear power plant for
several years. The Ignalina plant manager claims that the seized material
is not nuclear fuel or equipment used at his facility. |
| 1 February |
Swiss federal prosecutors
announced on 1 February the arrest of a Swiss citizen of Turkish descent
for attempting to sell a sample of "slightly-enriche d" uranium in
Switzerland, according to press. Swiss authorities stated that the
individual claimed the sample was part of a larger cache still in Turkey.
Turkish police using information from their Swiss counterparts, then
arrested eight people and seized 1.128 kg of similar material. Press
reports indicate that the uranium was similar to that used in nuclear
power plant fuel rods. Swiss authorities reportedly are conducting tests
to determine the uranium's country of origin. |
| 25 January |
According to press reports,
German authorities have charged a merchant and his lawyer with crimes
stemming from their attempt to sell radioactive cesium to another
merchant who was a police informant. The cesium reportedly was
transported to Germany from Zaire on board a commercial airliner. |
| 21 January |
UPDATE (7 November 95):
The German parliamentary commission investigating the 1994 plutonium
smuggling incident, reportedly has uncovered German gove rnment documents
indicating that the three smugglers offered to supply 11 kilograms of
Russian-origin, weapons-grade plutonium, which they claimed was enough to
build three nuclear weapons, according to press reports. |
| 18 January |
According to press reports,
German authorities have charged a merchant and his lawyer with crimes
stemming from their attempt to sell radioactive cesium-137 smuggled from
Zaire to another merchant who was a police informant. The cesium
reportedly was transported to Germany from Zaire on board a commercial
airliner. |
| 17 January |
A Palestinian in Dubai, UAE has
offered to sell three kilograms of reportedly Russian-origin red mercury
to a Lebanese-American businessman, according to US diplomatic
reporting. |
| 28 December |
According to press reports, the
Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) arrested nine members of a
criminal organization in Novosibirsk and seized a quantit y of
radioactive material. The material was identified in press reports as
"enriched" uranium-235. The material had been transported to Novosibirsk
by middlemen, possibly from Kazakstan. The ultimate destination may have
been South Korea, accord ing to press reports. |
| 2 December |
UPDATE (9 Nov 95):
According to Italian press reports, Italian prosecutors have arrested an
individual, Roger D'Onofrio, with reported links to the U S Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Italian-American mafia as part of their
investigation of smuggling radioactive materials, money-laundering and
arms trafficking. D'Onofrio, 72, reportedly has dual Italian and U.S.
citizenship and retired from t he CIA only two years ago. The ring he is
alleged to have been part of is said to have been active from the early
1990s up to this year. Italian investigators reportedly suspect that
D'Onofrio is the mastermind behind an international ring which laundered
dirty money and smuggled gold, weapons, and radioactive material. His
name also appears in another investigation into an arms smuggling
operation between Italy and the Middle East, according to press reports.
D'Onofrio was taken into preventive custody o n charges of money
laundering and acting as a broker in illegal currency dealing. According
to press, the prosecutors had so far ascertained money laundering for
over 2.5 billion dollars on behalf of secret service and organised crime
sources in complicit y with diplomats, the ruling families in Kuwait,
Morocco and Zambia, bankers, prelates and others. |
| 1 December |
UPDATE (23 November ):
According to US diplomats in Moscow, the Russian Federal Security Service
(FSB) delivered an official statement to US official s regarding the
radioactive material discovered in Izmailov park on 23 November. The
container, which held cesium-137, posed no public health threat.
Radiation levels of the cesium were between 10 to more than 50
millicurrie. The radioactive material may have been used as an instrument
calibration source used in flaw detection equipment. |
| 30 November |
A former Greenpeace president
revealed that the organization had been offered a nuclear warhead by a
disgruntled former Soviet officer keen to highlight la x security,
according to press accounts. The former Greenpeace official stated in a
recently published book that a Soviet officer with access to nuclear
weapons offered Greenpeace an 800 kg nuclear Scud warhead for public
display in Berlin. The offer was made shortly before 7 September
1991. |
| 29 November |
Russian security officials have
recovered four containers with radioactive cesium, stolen from an
industrial plant in the Urals and arrested the thieves, a ccording to
press reports. Federal Security Service (FSB) officers found the
90-kilogram (198-pound) containers in a shaft of an old mine, the
ITAR-Tass news agency reported. One of the alleged thieves, the Bakal
mining plant's electrical engineer, had in itially kept them at his
vegetable garden but moved them to a safer place after the theft had been
discovered, claimed security officials. Two officials of a local
penitentiary were his accomplices, they further alleged. Each container
held a capsule with cesium 137, a radioactiveisotope used in geological
research, as well as in medicine. The containers were similar to the one
allegedly planted by Chechen rebels in a Moscow park. |
| 23 November |
Acting on a tip from Chechen
separatist leader Basayev, Russian television reporters discovered a 32
kg container--reportedly holding cesium-137--in a Mosc ow park. The
container was reportedly removed and turned over to the Russian Federal
Security Service (FSB). FSB officials stated that an official
investigation was underway and that no further comments would be made
until the inquiry was completed, accor ding to press reports. Television
reports quote a highly-placed FSB officer as stating unofficially that
the object was a piece of a hospital x-ray machine. Basayev claimed
earlier this month that several containers of radioactive material
attached to exp losive devices had been planted in Russia. In a
television interview aired on 15 October, Russian Interior minister
Kulikov stated that Chechen separatist leader Basayev might have
radioactive waste or radioisotopes taken from the Budyonnovsk hospi tal
seized by Chechen rebels last spring. |
| 23 November |
UPDATE (7 Nov 95): A
German court sentenced Adolph Jaekle, a German businessman, to 51/2 years
in prison for smuggling weapons grade plutonium into the country,
according to press reports. Investigators made the first in a series of
contraband plutonium seizures in Germany when they raided Jaekle's home,
in the southern town of Tengen in May, 1994, and found a lead cylinder
containing 6.15 grams ofpl utonium 239. Jaekle had pleaded not guilty to
the plutonium charge, arguing that he did not know what the substance
was. |
| 11
November |
Russian
Federal Security Service (FSB) officials arrested two Lithuanian citizens
in Smolensk for smuggling 10 kgs of "uranium-238" into Russia, according
to Russian television rep orts. Three Russians also were arrested for
attempting to sell the uranium. Both the Lithuanians and the Russians
claimed that poverty had induced them to attempt to traffic in smuggled
nuclear materials. According to press accounts, Russian authorities s
tressed that the material was not weapons grade and had no commercial or
industrial uses. |
| 9
November |
Italian
prosecutors reportedly have asked Spanish authorities for permission to
question the Archbishop of Barcelona about his role in an international
criminal syndicate involved in smuggli ng radioactive materials,
according to Italian press accounts. Accusations against the Archbishop
arose after Italian officials tapped a telephone conversation in which
the Archbishop was named as playing a leading role in the criminal
enterprise. Both th e Archbishop and the Vatican have vehemently denied
the accusations. The Spanish Justice ministry has characterized the
Italian request as "not very well thought out." The Italian investigation
grew out on an earlier probe into money laundering operations which
reportedly uncovered information that a criminal enterprise involving a
self-professed Italian intelligence official, was attempting to sell 7.5
kg osmium for $63,000 per gram, according to Italian press
accounts. |
| 7
November |
During a
search of a car at the Polish-Czech border, Polish Border Guards
discovered 11 cigarette pack-size containers filled with strontium-90,
according to press accounts. This incident is the first case in 1995
involving smuggling radioactive material through Poland. |
| 7
November |
UPDATE
(10 Aug 94): Adolf Jaekle, accused of
smuggling Russian-origin plutonium following a May 1994 raid on his home,
denied any involvement in nuclear smu ggling, according to press reports.
Jaekle insisted that the container of plutonium was planted at his home
and that the container was not the same one he took from a Swiss
associate for metal reprocessing. |
| 7
November |
Iranian
press reports indicate the Iranian law enforcement authorities have
arrested five Iranians and seized nine packets of uranium in tehran and
two other cities. No details were released regarding amount of material
or whether it was enriched or not. |
| 25 October |
The cleaning staff at Moscow's
Sheremetyevo 2 airport found a small lead container packed with
radioactive substances in the men's restrooms, according to p ress
reports. Experts reportedly are attempting to determine the exact
composition of the three sources of ionizing radiation found in the
container. The speculation, in the Russian press, was that a nuclear
smuggler lost his nerve and abandoned the mater ial during an aborted
smuggling attempt. |
| 19 October |
UPDATE (10 Aug 94):
According to a 19 October article in Der Stern, nuclear weapons smugglers
involved in smuggling Russian-origin plutonium into Ger many in August
1994 have stored eight to ten kilograms of weapons-grade plutonium in
Berlin. The article also implicates highly placed Russians in the
smuggling activity. |
| 14 October |
Russian mafia figures
reportedly were behind the 1993 theft of radioactive beryllium from a
Russian nuclear laboratory and the failed attempt to sell the ma terial
in the West, according to press reports. The theft, which was widely
reported in 1993, was seized by police in Lithuania and remains today in
the bank vault where it was first discovered. According to press, the
smugglers were preparing to sell the beryllium to an Austrian middleman
who in turn had a mystery buyer who reportedly was willing to pay as much
as $24 million for the material. The buyer, although never identified,
was said to be Korean. Beryllium, which is used in missile guidance
system s, is a highly efficent neutron reflector, according to public
statements by nuclear scientists. |
| 10 October |
Russian authorities claim that
there have been no identified incidents in which weapons-grade
radioactive material has been smuggled out of Russia, accordin g to press
reports. In a press conference, Russian General Terekhov of the Interior
Ministry, stated that of the 16 cases involving theft of radioactive
materials, none could have been used to make nuclear weapons. He also
ruled out any involvement by Rus sian organized criminal organizations in
the thefts. The general claimed that the thefts were spontaneous actions
by individuals working at nuclear facilities. The Russian officials
concluded the press conference by stating that there is no black market i
n nuclear materials. |
| 1 September |
According to press reports,
Bulgarian police had broken an international nuclear smuggling ring
composed of Russians and Ukrainians. Police spokesmen, decl ining to
disclose details only said that the materials seized were of strategic
value and included rare metals. The arrests were the culmination of a
year-long undercover operation. Senior policie officials comented that
they were still investigating the final destination of the materials,
some of which were radioactive. |
| 15 June |
Press reports indicate that so
far in 1995 Romanian authorities have seized 24 kgs of uranium powder and
tablets and 1994 they arrested 24 people for involveme nt in nuclear
smuggling and seized 10.35 kgs of uranium powder and tablets. From 1989
to 1993, the Romanians reportedly broke up five gangs, arrested 50
people, and seized 230 kgs of nuclear material. |
| 13 April |
Slovak police culminated a long
investigation with the discovery of 18.39kg of nuclear material, 17.5 kg
of which apparently is U-238, in a car stopped near P oprad in eastern
Slovakia. Altogether, three Hungarians, four Slovaks, and two Ukrainians
were arrested. This gang was connected to three other nuclear material
smuggling incidents. |
| 5 April |
Four brass containers weighing
2 kilos each containing radioactive americium-241 and cesium-137 were
stolen from a storeroom of isotopes in Wroclaw, Poland. |
| 4 April |
Press reports that 6 kg of
U-235, U-238, radium, and palladium were found in a Kiev apartment.
Occupants were ex-army, a lieutenant colonel and a warrant offic er, and
material reportedly came from Russia. |
| 2 April |
Documents recovered by Japanese
police in the investigation of Aum Shinrikyo involvement in the Tokyo
subway sarin gas attack reportedly indicated that the ter rorists were
collecting information on uranium enrichment and laser beam technologies.
A spokesman for Russia's prestigious nuclear physics laboratory,
Kurchatov Institute, acknowledged that at least one Aum Shinrikyo
follower was working at the institute . |
| 14 March |
Polish police in Bielska-Biala
province arrested a man for possession of uranium . |
| 8 March |
Italian police arrested one
Nicola Todesco for murder in a plutonium smuggling case gone awry when
the murder victim did not have the money to pay for a quanti ty of
plutonium smuggled out of Bulgaria. Todesco claimed he threw 5g of
plutonium into the Adige river, but no trace of it was found after an
extensive search. (Comment: Although an official Italian spokesman
believed the plutonium was "enriched for military use," it had not been
analyzed and may be another scam involving 'plutonium screws' from smoke
detectors. |
| 25 January |
According to Talinn news
broadcasts, Lithuanian border police, using U.S.-supplied stationary
radiation detectors, seized two tons of radioactive wolfram hi dden in a
secret compartment in a truck trailer. (The "wolfram" is tungsten, which
has a short half-life, and probably was "infected" by a radioactive
contaminant.) The incident occurred at the Lithuanian-Belorus border, and
the truck' s owner and two other men were arrested. A similar incident
occurred a week earlier at another border post but no details are
available. |
| 14 December |
Czech police seized 2.72 kg
of material--later identified as 87.7 percent enriched U-235--in Prague;
this is the largest recorded seizure of such material. Police arrested a
Czech nuclear physicist and two c itizens of the Former Soviet Union. The
uranium apparently came from the FSU and was to be smuggled to Western
Europe. |
| 10 December |
Press reporting indicates
Hungarian border guards seized 1.7 kg of uranium and arrested four Slovak
citizens. The material (depleted uranium and reactor fu el grade)
reportedly was concealed in a fruit jar and was to be smuggled into
Austria. |
| 6 December |
In a long article in
Pravda, it was reported that three staffers of the Institute of
Nuclear Physics were convicted of stealing 4.5 kg of uranium. |
| 10 November |
Press reporting indicates
Hungarian police discovered 26 kg of radioactive material in the trunk of
a car. Three suspects were subsequently arrested. |
| November |
Press reporting indicates
German police seized 1 milligram of cesium-137 in early November and
arrested two suspects. |
| 19 October |
Press reporting indicates
Turkish police arrested an Azeri national trying to sell 750 g of
uranium. |
| 17 October |
Press reporting indicates
Russian authorities seized 27 kg of U-238, an unknown quantity of U-235
and detained 12 members of a criminal gang. |
| October |
Press reporting indicates that
in mid-October, four Indian villagers were arrested attempting to sell
2.5 kg of yellowcake, i.e. uranium extracted from ore. |
| 13 October |
Press reporting indicates
Bulgarian officials seized four lead capsules suspected of containing
radioactive material. The capsules were found on a bus enrou te to Turkey
and police detained the two bus drivers. |
| 10 October |
Press reporting indicates
Romanian authorities arrested seven people and seized 7 kg of uranium and
an unidentified quantity of strontium or cesium. |
| 01 October |
Press reporting indicates
Romanian police arrested four people trying to sell over 4 kg of U-235
and U-238. |
| October |
Press reporting dated 26
October indicates Russian authorities arrested three men trying to pass
67 kg of U-238 to unidentified individuals in the city of Psko v. |
| 28 September |
Press reporting indicates that
a container with radioactive substances was found on a street in
Tallinn. |
| 28 September |
Romanian authorities arrested
several indivduals who were attempting to sell 4.55 kg of uranium
tetrachloride (61.9 percent uranium) for $25 thousand per kg, according
to press reports |
| 28 September |
Press reporting indicates
Slovak officials arrested four Slovaks trying to smuggle almost 1 kg of
U-235 (judged not to be weapons-grade) into Hungary. |
| 26 September |
Press reporting indicates the
discovery of a glass flask containing unspecified "weak radioactive
material" at the Wetzlar railroad station in G ermany. |
| September |
A Pole tried to sell 1 kg of
U-235/238 in Germany. A German court subsequently sentenced him to two
and a half years in prison for trading in radioactive ura nium. |
| 11 September |
Press reports indicate German
police arrested a Zairian national attempting to smuggle 850 g of
uraninite into Germany. |
| 07 September |
Press reports indicate Russian
police arrested three people in Glazov trying to sell 100 kg of
U-238. |
| 05 September |
Press reports indicate
Bulgarian authorities arrested six Bulgarians in connection and seized 19
containers of radioactive material. |
| 30 August |
Press reports indicate thieves
broke into a chemical plant in Tambov and stole 4.5 g of cesium 137. |
| 29 August |
Press reports indicate
Hungarian police arrested two men and seized 4.4 kg of material believed
to be fuel rods from a reactor in Russia. |
| 20 August |
Press reports Russian
authorities arrested two men attempting to steal 9.5 kg of uranium 238
from the Arzamas-16 nuclear weapons research facility. |
| 18 August |
Press reports indicate Estonian
police arrested a man and seized 3 kg of U-238 he had buried under his
garage. |
|
According to press reporting,
about 100 uranium-contaminated drums were stolen from South Africa's
Atomic Energy Corporation plant in Pelindaba, Transvaal. |
| 12 August |
Press reports indicate that St.
Petersburg police arrested three men trying to sell 60 kg of unidentified
nuclear material. |
| 12 August |
Press reports indicate German
police in Bremen arrested a German who claimed to have 2 g of plutonium;
the sample contained only minute amounts of legally ob tainable
plutonium. |
| 10 August |
Press report indicates that
over 500 g of nuclear material were seized at Munich airport. The trial
began on 10 May 1995 of two men for possession of 363g (12.8 ounces) of
weapons-grade plutonium-239. |
| August |
Unconfirmed press report says 3
kg of enriched uranium were seized in August in southwestern
Romania. |
| July |
Press
reporting dated 19 July indicates Turkish National Police arrested seven
Turks and seized 12 kg of weapons-grade uranium. |
| July |
According
to 6 July press reporting, Russian authorities in Shezninks discover 5.5
kg of U-238 previously stolen from the Chelyabinsk-65 nuclear
facility. |
| July |
According
to a 2 November press report, police in Timisoara, Romania, arrested five
Romanians trying to sell 2.6 kg of Russian uranium. |
| 13 June |
Press reporting indicates a
seizure of 0.8 g of uranium 235 (enriched to 88%) occurred in Landshut,
Germany. |
| June |
According
to 6 June press reporting, Russian security official announces the arrest
of three Russians in St. Petersburg who allegedly tried to sell 3.5 kg of
HEU. |
| June |
According
to an 8 July press report, Russian authorities arrested three officers
from the Northern Fleet accused of having stolen 4.5 kg of U-238 from
their base in Nov 93. |
| June |
According
to a 2 November press report, police in Pitesti, Romania, arrested three
Romanians trying to sell 3 kg of uranium tablets. |
| May |
According to 30 July press
reporting, 56 g of material, including 6 g of plutonium 239, were seized
and Adolf Jaekle, a German citizen, was arrested in G ermany in
May. |
