State Security Service detain three for illegal purchase, storage, attempt of sale of radioactive substances
It also noted the group were “actively searching” for a buyer of the materials, maintained secrecy by “systematically changing” the place of storage, and finally attempted to sell the substance, at which time they were arrested.Photo: State Security Service of Georgia.
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The Anti-Corruption Agency and Counterintelligence Department of the State Security Service of Georgia on Tuesday detained three individuals for illegal purchase and storage of radioactive substances and an attempt to sell them for $1.2 million.
The Agency said it had established that the organised group was illegally storing radioactive substances with gamma radiation in capital Tbilisi and the eastern municipality of Sagarejo.
The substances with the dangerous type of radioactive exposure were being stored at the residential addresses of the individuals, the state body added.
Photo: State Security Service of Georgia.
It also noted the group were “actively searching” for a buyer of the materials, maintained secrecy by “systematically changing” the place of storage, and finally attempted to sell the substance, at which time they were arrested.
The crime is punishable by five to 10 years in prison.
Professionals from 10 partner countries of Georgia have been introduced to Georgia’s experience in combating illegal trafficking of nuclear and radioactive threads in a working group of the Interpol’s Geiger project this week.
Georgia’s experience in detecting and responding to nuclear and radiation threats at border crossing points was in focus of a meeting held within the International Criminal Police Organisation’s Geiger project in Georgia’s Black Sea city of Batumi on Wednesday, the Georgian Interior Ministry said.
The Georgian State Security Service has arrested two individuals in the city of Kutaisi, western Georgia for the attempted sale of a radioactive substance Americium-241 for 300,000 euros. The agency has reported earlier today that even the level of radiation detected on the container could seriously damage heath.
Armenian citizen Militos M. has been detained by the Georgian State Security Service while trying to transport the radioactive substance Thorium, packed in four bags to Russia via Georgia.
Georgia has joined the International Radiation Monitoring Information System of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and thus the radiation indicators, received from Georgia’s Agency of Nuclear and Radiation Safety, will be automatically supplied to the IRMIS system and reflected on the international map, the Environment Ministry announced on Saturday.