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Organized Crime Increasingly Interested in Radioactive Material Smuggling
International authorities have reported an increasing interest among organized criminal groups in the illegal trafficking of radioactive materials that could be used to produce “dirty bombs,” the Washington Post reported yesterday (see GSN, Nov. 25). Over the past several years, radioactive material smugglers have often used trafficking routes that go through the Caucasus region, especially Georgia, according to the Post. Georgia has become a favorite of radioactive material smugglers because of its poor border controls and corruption and also because of its quantities of Soviet-era radioactive hardware and waste, the Post reported (see GSN, Oct. 23, 2002). “We inherited chaos. Radiological equipment has turned up in garbage dumps, even in sewage,” said Dato Bakradze, director of international security and conflict management for Georgia’s National Security Council (see GSN, Aug. 8). Since 1999, there have been at least three incidents where Georgian authorities intercepted illegal shipments of uranium entering or leaving the country, according to the Post. In the most recent incident, which occurred in June, more than a pound of uranium was intercepted at the Georgian-Armenian border, according to Georgian security officials (see GSN, June 17). Georgian officials said the material was believed to have been of Russian-origin and was shipped through Georgia to be resold in Iran. The increasing involvement of organized crime in radioactive material smuggling increases the risk of terrorists obtaining such material, U.S. experts said (Joby Warrick, Washington Post, Nov. 30).
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