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Afghanistan/South Asia

Uranium is found with drug dealers in India

2005-02-06

Indian police found weapons-grade uranium on two men who were arrested in the country's north on suspicion of being drug peddlers, a report said yesterday. The discovery of 253.6 grams of "99 per cent uranium" was made when police pounced on Khurshid and Aslam last December in Uttar Pradesh state's Bareilly district, the Times of India said, giving only the first names of the two men. The uranium plates were found in a lead-lined sophisticated box, police said.

How is a lead-lined box 'sophisticated'?

It's all in the hinges...

The substance was sent for analysis to the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in Bombay which sent back a report stating the rods were "99pc uranium by weight". "I will not hazard a guess about where the uranium was headed," said director general of police R P Singh. "A number of top investigating agencies are currently looking into that," he added.

48 hour rule on this one. Bet a geiger counter doesn't even blip when passed over the rods.

Posted by:Steve White

#4 Other articles recently have pointed out that, as traditional sources of funds are being choked off, the terrorists are turning increasingly to criminal enterprises for money. As I recall, identity theft, street-sale knockoffs, drugs and gun running have all been mentioned. This article might be a confirmation that Indian criminals are now joining in fun that has already extended tentacles to the Americas and Europe.

Posted by: trailing wife 2005-02-06 1:30:44 PM

#3 Being "99 per cent uranium" is not the same as "weapons-grade uranium." For example, depleted uranium can be 99%(or 100%)pure uranium.

Weapons-grade uranium is not just elementally pure uranium, it is also isotopically enriched to a high percentage of U-235. The article fails to make this distinction.

I recommend taking this article with a grain of salt.

Posted by: Biff Wellington 2005-02-06 10:52:33 AM

#2 Hmmm. I wonder if the point of this is to associate Islamacist terror with criminal (ie. drug dealing) gangs. In other words, to reduce the glorious Islamacist terrorist to a common crimnal who hangs out in shoddy places.

Whether or not the story is true, its promulgation leads in that direction. Has much been going on in Uttar Pradesh in general of late? I confess I haven't been following the Kashmir and Bangladesh situtions in any detail ....

Posted by: too true 2005-02-06 6:26:07 AM

#1 "The uranium plates were found in a lead-lined sophisticated box, police said."
How is a lead-lined box 'sophisticated'?

I think you missed the crucial word sequence as it is in the article, Steve. They had taken a regular sophisticated box, no doubt purchased from a common-or-garden sophisticated box retailer (e.g.SophisticatedBoxesCulturedCrates.com), and modified the sophisticated box by giving it a lead lining.

Posted by: Syke Milwester 2005-02-06 5:45:16 AM

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