Posted on 06/16/2003 11:10:39 AM PDT by yonif
Authorities seized a small amount of radioactive material and nerve gas from a taxi in the Georgian capital and detained the driver, officials said Monday.
Tedo Mokeliya was detained May 31 after police in this former Soviet republic discovered two containers with 3 curies of cesium-137 and 12 microcuries of strontium in his taxi, said Givi Mgebrishvili, chief of the Interior Ministry's main criminal investigation department.
Cesium and strontium, which have medical and industrial applications, are considered likely ingredients for a so-called "dirty bomb," in which conventional explosives are combined with radioactive material.
Mgebrishvili said at a news conference that police also found a dark brown liquid, which they determined to be nerve gas concentrate.
Mgebrishvili said Mokeliya was taking the containers to his father-in-law in Kobuleti, a town in the separatist province of Adzharia near the border with Turkey. Police believe the father-in-law, Amiran Khubuteishvili, intended to sell the illicit materials in Turkey.
Police in Adzharia questioned Khubuteishvili, but refused to arrest him.
Officials did not say where Mokeliya is believed to have obtained the substances.
Cesium and strontium were commonly used in instruments for measuring environmental radiation that were kept in Soviet military bases in Georgia. Thefts of the materials became common after the 1991 Soviet collapse, and, according to some estimates, dozens of such containers are unaccounted for.
Environment Minister Nino Chkhobadze said the materials seized in May had not led to any environmental contamination.
"There was no environmental contamination because these substances, fortunately, were in containers," she said.
...Authorities seized a small amount of radioactive material and nerve gas from a taxi in the Georgian capital and detained the driver, officials said Monday.
Tedo Mokeliya was detained May 31 after police in this former Soviet republic discovered two containers with 3 curies of cesium-137 and 12 microcuries of strontium in his taxi, said Givi Mgebrishvili, chief of the Interior Ministry’s main criminal investigation department. Cesium and strontium, which have medical and industrial applications, are considered likely ingredients for a so-called “dirty bomb,” in which conventional explosives are combined with radioactive material. ...police also found a dark brown liquid, which they determined to be nerve gas concentrate. ...Mokeliya was taking the containers to his father-in-law in Kobuleti, a town in the separatist province of Adzharia...
Adzharia... thanks Piasa.
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http://news.google.com/news?&rls=en&q=Adzharia&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&um=1&sa=N&tab=wn
Stepping back in time...ping.
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