NAKHON PHANOM STING: Seven held in plot to sell fake uranium

Group hoped to dupe buyers looking for nuclear materials, police say

BANGKOK: -- Seven men were arrested yesterday in Nakhon Phanom for allegedly attempting to sell what they claimed was uranium, police said.

Police nabbed the men at a hotel in the northeastern province’s Muang district in possession of four metal cylinders, each weighing 1.2 kg and measuring 15 cm in length and 6 cm in diameter.

Police said one of the arrested men, Chatchai Aworn, told them that the substance inside the cylinders was not uranium but moisture-absorbent pellets, which they had hoped would deceive the prospective buyers.

Chatchai told police he bought the tubes from the Rong Klua

market in Sa Kaew’s Aran-

yaprathet district on the Cam-bodian border, before modifying them to make them look more convincing.

The other suspects, most of them northeasterners, were identified as Thanakit Kathep, Krua Phromchai, Prayong Kotthata, Mongkol Yonloy, Dun Boonta and Songyos Sangnak.

Police have sent the cylinders to the Office of Atomic for Peace to identify the material in the tubes, said Lt-Colonel Ekachai Nathueng, deputy superintendent of the Muang Nakhon Phanom police station.

The suspects, meanwhile, have been handed over to Special Branch police for further questioning.

Uranium is a highly toxic radioactive element used to make nuclear fuels and weapons.

Ekachai said initial investigations supported the suspects’ story that they were hoping to defraud buyers.

The officer said that due to the nature of the case, the local police had reported it to Interior Minister Chidchai Vanasatidya, who oversees internal security matters.

Ekachai said local authorities had been on alert following intelligence reports that war weapons had been smuggled into border provinces in the Northeast.

--The Nation 2005-05-02

They have come along way since starting out copying premiership football shirts

Maybe they hadn't heard Saddam's in jail and were hoping to sell some WMD's!

I do slightly admire these guys for their gall, but not so much for blatant stupidity.

quite a funny story, what are those uranium made out of, fish-sauce.

Very funny indeed!

Just who the ###### are going to be the buyers and at the same time are stupid enough to be fooled?

I would have thought it wise to set up a sting operation and arrest those who were going to BUY this 'uranium'.

Surely they are the real bad guys ?

So these guys were arrested for trying to defraud terrorists? They should have been given some kind of award .

So these guys were arrested for trying to defraud terrorists?  They should have been given some kind of award  .

Agree! Agree!

######! Now where am I supposed to get that uranium?

Also - "Office of Atomic for Peace"

???

jb

I would have thought it wise to set up a sting operation and arrest those who were going to BUY this 'uranium'.

Surely they are the real bad guys ?

   

Right! Who the h*ll needs to buy uranium??

One can only imagine it would be foreigners and the police would have their usual field day making an example out of them.

I would have thought it wise to set up a sting operation and arrest those who were going to BUY this 'uranium'.

Surely they are the real bad guys ?

   

Right! Who the h*ll needs to buy uranium??

One can only imagine it would be foreigners and the police would have their usual field day making an example out of them.

One would hope so but they arrested the sellers BEFORE they met the prospective buyers ! !

TIT

I would have thought it wise to set up a sting operation and arrest those who were going to BUY this 'uranium'.

Surely they are the real bad guys ?

   

Right! Who the h*ll needs to buy uranium??

One can only imagine it would be foreigners and the police would have their usual field day making an example out of them.

One would hope so but they arrested the sellers BEFORE they met the prospective buyers ! !

TIT

The more I think about this, the more I realize that there probably never was any genuine buyer. What the Thai police described as a "sting operation" would probably be described as "entrapment" by the lawyers in "western" countries.

Nakon Panom will now be the 'hub' for Uranium and weapons sales ! What a tourism bonanza !

What if it was..........for which faction and its final destination.

Also 2003 thailand

Dirty Bomb Materials Intercepted

Tipped off by undercover agents of the US Customs Service, Thai police arrested Narong Penanam, age 44, outside a Bangkok hotel, after he offered to sell the agents a metal container he said contained uranium, for $240,000.

Analysis revealed the material was cesium-137, which is not fissionable, and which has many medical/industrial applications. Cesium is considered usable as a "dirty bomb" ingredient, in which a conventional explosion is used to contaminate a large area with radioactive material.

The defendant told authorities he had obtained the container from nearby Laos, and said his sources had more to sell. If thailands con-community play with this stuff, fake or otherwise. they should have read up on - terrorism act first.

Also - "Office of Atomic for Peace"

???

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Read that = Office of Atomic Energy for Peace [OAEP].

However, seeing that they haven't generated any energy yet, they may well consider a name change as printed.

Edited May 3, 200521 yr by Sphere