Special to WorldTribune.com
Smugglers from former Soviet republics have been working to set up a black market for radioactive materials and the FBI recently seized illegal chemicals during an undercover sting.
The FBI is said to have foiled at least four plots in the last five years by gangs in Eastern Europe to sell nuclear material to terror groups, including Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL).
In February of this year, an investigation led to the capture of a smuggler who had obtained a huge cache of deadly cesium — enough to contaminate several city blocks — and was actively seeking a buyer from ISIL.
Related: Reporter: West ‘drastically’ underestimates ISIL, Sept. 25, 2015
ISIL has made it known that it is pursuing material to build a “dirty bomb.”
Jurden Todenhofer, a war correspondent and former German member of parliament who spent 10 days embedded with ISIL jihadists, said “the West is drastically underestimating the power of ISIL.”
Todenhofer wrote that “the terrorists plan on killing several hundred million people” in a “nuclear tsunami.”
Police in Moldova told the Associated Press that the cooling of relations between Russia and the West has made it much more difficult to detect smugglers who are attempting to move vast amounts of Russian radioactive materials.
FBI Director James Comey, when asked about intelligence-sharing with Russia, told Fox News last week: “We don’t cooperate much. There is some cooperation when it comes to criminal and counterterrorism.”
FBI said to stop plot to sell radioactive material to terror groups added by World Tribune on
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