Two plead guilty over nuclear smuggling in Georgia
Just in case you forgot how dangerous it can be in the world today…
TBILISI — Two Armenian men have pleaded guilty during a secret trial to smuggling highly enriched uranium into Georgia, officials said on Monday, highlighting concerns over loose nuclear materials in the ex-USSR.
Sumbat Tonoian and Hrant Ohanian were arrested in a sting operation in March after they smuggled the 18 grams (0.6 ounces) of uranium from Armenia into Georgia and tried to sell it to an undercover agent, Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili told AFP.
He said they tried to sell the material for 1.5 million dollars to an agent they believed represented Islamic radicals.
Utiashvili called the operation “a big success for our nuclear smuggling unit”, after Georgia in recent years received nearly 50 million dollars in aid from Washington to help it combat trafficking in nuclear materials.
Media reports said the two men had smuggled the uranium on a train from the Armenian capital Yerevan to Tbilisi in a cigarette box lined with lead to fool radiation sensors at the border.
The reports said tests had confirmed that though a small amount, the uranium was nearly 90 percent enriched and potentially usable in a nuclear warhead.
Reports said the two men were attempting to sell the uranium as a sample and had said they were able to obtain more. Tonoian was described as a failed businessman and Ohanian as a retired physicist.