[Rooters] Mexican police have found dangerous radioactive medical material stolen by thieves that the United Nations...boodling on the grand scale...
said could provide an ingredient for a "dirty bomb," the country's national nuclear safety commission CNSNS said on Wednesday.
The truck was found on Wednesday close to where it was stolen outside Mexico City. The thieves removed the radioactive material from a protective case, exposing them to dangerous levels of radiation then dumped it less than a mile away.
The truck was stolen on Monday while it was taking cobalt-60 from a hospital in the northern city of Tijuana to a radioactive waste-storage center, Mexican officials and the UN agency said earlier.
"Both the container and the radioactive source have been located," said Mardonio Jimenez Rojas, an official at the commission, told Rooters. "The radioactive source was removed from its container and was found a kilometer away."
"The thieves were exposed to radiation," he added, saying those exposed to the material could die. Experts were working on how to secure the radioactive material in a protective container, he said.
The vehicle was seized when the driver stopped at a gas station in the town of Temascalapa, 35 km (22 miles) northeast of Mexico City. Truck hijacking is common in Mexico and the theft occurred in the State of Mexico, which is not a narco mob stronghold.
