Six uranium smugglers detained in Moldova.

CHISINAU, June 30 (Itar-Tass) -- Six persons, members of an
international criminal group dealing in the sales of uranium for making
'dirty bombs,' have been detained in Moldova, a top-ranking official from
the Mongolian interior ministry said on Wednesday.
"We have arrested six persons. Among them are citizens of Moldova,
residents of the Dniester region, a Russian subject, and citizens of Arab
and African countries," Vitaly Brichak, the head of the ministry's
investigation department, told journalists.
Brichak said police has seized uranium-235 but in the interest of
investigation refused to tell the quantity and the degree of enrichment.
"This is the type of uranium that is used to make the so-called 'dirty
bombs,'" he noted. In his words, the operation has been conducted in close
cooperation with law enforcement agencies from Ukraine, Germany, and the
United States since March. Information about possible sale of uranium-235
in Moldova came from the United States. A kilogram of the substance costs
about 20 million euros on the black market.
"At the moment of the arrest, the container's radiation background was
twice as high as the permissible safe level of 25 microroentgen per hour,"
Brichak said. In his words, a criminal case was opened on charges of
contraband and the use of explosives and radioactive materials.