Plots to sell nuke material to IS foiled

Smuggling gangs with suspected Russian links tried to sell nuclear material to Islamic extremists from ISIS, an investigation has found.

In the backwaters of Moldova, authorities working with the FBI interrupted four attempts in the past five years by the gangs that sought to sell radioactive material to Middle Eastern extremists, The Associated Press news agency learned. The latest known case came in February this year, when a smuggler offered a huge cache of deadly cesium — enough to contaminate several city blocks — and specifically sought a buyer from ISIS.

The smuggler, Valentin Grossu, offered the supply of cesium to what he thought was an ISIS representative in exchange for €2.5 million, according to the investigation. The representative was in fact an informant.

 "You can make a dirty bomb, which would be perfect for the Islamic State," the smuggler said in a meeting at a nightclub in the Moldovan capital of Chisinau. "If you have a connection with them, the business will go smoothly."

After initial suspicions and 20 meetings, Grossu was persuaded the informant was an authentic ISIS representative and the pair met to exchange money, in a sting operation that ended up with Grossu in jail.

The investigation also uncovered an attempt to sell bomb--grade uranium to a real buyer from the Middle East.

In that operation, wiretaps and interviews with investigators show, a middleman for the gang repeatedly ranted with hatred for 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 fulfillment of a long-feared scenario in which organized crime gangs are trying to link up with groups such as ISIS 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.