FBI investigates crossing of radioactive material from Armenia to Georgia-WikiLeaks.
“On August 26, 2009 a car carrying three Armenian citizens entered Georgia from Armenia at the Sadakhlo border crossing. The car set off a gamma alarm on the radiation detection portal monitor. The driver of the vehicle said that he had recently had surgery, during which time a radioactive isotope was injected into his body. The patrol police accepted this explanation, requiring no documentation or proof from the driver, and allowed the vehicle and occupants to enter Georgia,” a US Embassy cable says.
On August 27, the same car, carrying the same three Armenian citizens, returned to the Sadakhlo border crossing to exit from Georgia. The car again set off the gamma alarm on the radiation detection portal monitor. At this point, the patrol police detained the occupants and searched the vehicle. Georgian officials determined that the car was contaminated with Cesium-137.
The occupants of the vehicle were questioned, and one of the detainees told the investigator that he may have been contaminated while at a radio station near his village in Armenia.
However, a search of the vehicle failed to produce any radioactive material, the occupants were released and returned to Armenia. The FBI’s Regional WMD Coordinator is currently following up with the Government of Armenia on this case.
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