Chisinau, Moldova: Over the pulsating beat at an exclusive nightclub, the arms smuggler made his pitch to a client: €2.5 million ($3.94 million) for enough radioactive cesium to contaminate several city blocks.
It was earlier this year, and the two men were plotting their deal at an unlikely spot: the terrace of Cocos Prive, a dance club and sushi bar in Chisinau, the capital of the former Soviet republic of Moldova.
"You can make a dirty bomb, which would be perfect for the Islamic State," the smuggler said. "If you have a connection with them, the business will go smoothly."
But the smuggler, Valentin Grossu, wasn't sure the client was for real - and he was right to worry. The client was an informant, and it took some 20 meetings to persuade Grossu that he was an authentic Islamic State representative. Eventually, the two men exchanged cash for a sample in a sting operation that landed Grossu in jail.
The previously unpublicised case is one of at least four attempts in five years in which criminal networks with suspected Russian ties sought to sell radioactive material to extremists through Moldova, an investigation by The Associated Press has found. One investigation uncovered an attempt to sell bomb-grade uranium to a real buyer from the Middle East, the first known case of its kind.
In that operation, wiretaps and interviews with investigators show, a middleman for the gang repeatedly ranted against America as he focused on smuggling the essential material for an atomic bomb and blueprints for a dirty bomb to a Middle Eastern buyer.
In wiretaps, videotaped arrests, photographs of bomb-grade material, documents and interviews, AP found that smugglers are explicitly targeting buyers who are enemies of the West. The developments represent the fulfilment of a long-feared scenario in which organised crime gangs are trying to link up with groups such as IS and al-Qaeda - both of which have made clear their ambition to use weapons of mass destruction.
The sting operations involved a partnership between the FBI and a small group of Moldovan investigators, who over five years went from near-total ignorance of the black market to wrapping up four sting operations. Informants and police posing as connected gangsters penetrated the smuggling networks, using old-fashioned undercover tactics as well as high-tech gear from radiation detectors to clothing threaded with recording devices.
But their successes were undercut by striking shortcomings: Kingpins got away, and those arrested evaded long prison sentences, sometimes quickly returning to nuclear smuggling, AP found.
For strategic reasons, in most of the operations arrests were made after samples of nuclear material had been obtained rather than the larger quantities. That means that if smugglers did have access to the bulk of material they offered, it remains in criminal hands.
The repeated attempts to peddle radioactive materials signal that a thriving nuclear black market has emerged in an impoverished corner of Eastern Europe.
Moldovan police and judicial authorities say a breakdown in cooperation between Russia and the West means that it is much harder to know whether smugglers are finding ways to move parts of Russia's vast store of radioactive materials.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/nuclear-smu ... z3nrJKsCPy
You can get anything you want...
You can get anything you want...
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
Re: You can get anything you want...
Did we talk about this before? Moldova is the poorest country in Europe but has the best internet and mobile phone service.
One of my board members just moved there after her husband was sent for a 3 year assignment with the US Army. I'm hoping to get over and see her, although the country isn't terribly safe or easy to get to. It's not recommended to go by train/car/bus, because the routes travel thorough dangerous portions of Romania (highjackers) and too close to the Ukranian border (well, you know). The best way in is to fly from Munich or Vienna.
One of my board members just moved there after her husband was sent for a 3 year assignment with the US Army. I'm hoping to get over and see her, although the country isn't terribly safe or easy to get to. It's not recommended to go by train/car/bus, because the routes travel thorough dangerous portions of Romania (highjackers) and too close to the Ukranian border (well, you know). The best way in is to fly from Munich or Vienna.
“I ask no favor for my sex. All I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks.” ~ Ruth Bader Ginsburg, paraphrasing Sarah Moore Grimké
Re: You can get anything you want...
....at alice s restaurant....
Re: You can get anything you want...
sorry to change a serious subject, but even I can only handle so much reality before I want to run away with my fingers in my ears shouting lalalala.., I can t hear youuuuu....
Re: You can get anything you want...
Proof that wes is not rubato, our resident Asperger scientist cannot post youtube vids.
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
Re: You can get anything you want...
Oh look, another pointless shit-bomb.
yrs,
rubato
yrs,
rubato
Re: You can get anything you want...
Gee rube, you keep coming up with these great sig-lines for you to use, but you never paste them in...Oh look, another pointless shit-bomb.
Re: You can get anything you want...
Postby rubato » Wed Oct 07, 2015 4:12 pm
Oh look, another pointless shit-bomb.
yrs,
rubato
Oh look, another pointless shit-bomb.
yrs,
rubato
Re: You can get anything you want...
check out those Indian MC's in the foreground
Your collective inability to acknowledge this obvious truth makes you all look like fools.
yrs,
rubato
Re: You can get anything you want...
I thought you'd be happy I'd shown you're not wes!rubato wrote:Oh look, another pointless shit-bomb.
yrs,
rubato
No pleasing some people....
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
Re: You can get anything you want...
well....
that was a rather pointed shitbomb.
I m going to go cry now.....
rube is not wes..., he is napoleon!
that was a rather pointed shitbomb.
I m going to go cry now.....
rube is not wes..., he is napoleon!