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Bootleg Botulinum Toxin Producers Sought by AQ & Investigators
In early 2006, a mysterious cosmetics trader named Rakhman began showing up at salons in St. Petersburg, Russia, hawking a popular anti-aging drug at suspiciously low prices. Rakhman's "Botox" was found to be a potent clone of the real thing, but investigators soon turned to a far bigger worry: the prospect of an illegal factory in Chechnya churning out raw botulinum toxin, the key ingredient in the beauty drug and one of world's deadliest poisons. No Chechen factory has been found, but a search for the maker of the highly lethal toxin in Rakhman's vials continues across a widening swath of Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Asia. U.S. officials and security experts say they know the lab exists, and probably dozens of other such labs, judging from the surging black market for the drug. "It is the only profit-making venture for terrorists that can also potentially yield a weapon of mass destruction," said Kenneth Coleman, a physician and biodefense expert. Al-Qaeda's earlier known bioweapons efforts were hampered by rudimentary lab equipment and limited access to lethal strains. All of those problems can now be bypassed at a time when illicit networks are making the toxin for profit, said Coleman.Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2010-01-25 |
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