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Colombians busted with 29 lbs of uranium
Colombian authorities have seized 29.7 pounds (13.5 kg) of uranium from two people trying to secretly sell the radioactive metal to the highest bidder, the army said on Wednesday.Soldiers and police confiscated the uranium in the gritty Siete de Agosto neighborhood of the capital, Bogota, on February 24, Brig. Gen. Gustavo Matamoros said, speaking on radio and in a news release. He gave no more details about the uranium and did not say whether it would be suitable for making weapons or indicate whether the attempted sale may have been linked to Colombia's Marxist rebels or far-right paramilitaries. Western governments have long feared that militant groups might obtain materials for weapons of mass destruction on the black market. A man and a woman were arrested in the raid, an army spokeswoman said. She was not sure if they were still in custody and local television reported they had been set free because possession of uranium is not specifically forbidden by any Colombian law. "We are trying to establish where this material came from and where it was headed," Matamoros said in the news release. Colombia, a close ally of the United States, is locked in a four-decade-old insurgent war in which Marxist rebels are trying to overthrow the state and thousands of people are killed every year. The conflict is complicated by illegal far-right paramilitaries who oppose the rebels. Both outlaw groups are heavily involved in the cocaine trade. In January, Colombian officials arrested 19 members of a gang with links to Islamic militant groups Hamas and al Qaeda that forged passports for travel in the United States and Europe, according to the attorney general's office. Posted by: Dan Darling 2006-03-02 |
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