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Two arrested in Batumi for planning to sell uranium for $3 million

Two arrested in Batumi for planning to sell uranium for $3 million

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Georgia’s State Security Services (SSG) has detained two people in Batumi they accuse of attempting to sell an unspecified amount of uranium for $3 million.

The SSG announced the arrests on Thursday in a statement describing the case as a ‘transnational crime’. They said one of the detainees was Georgian, while the other was an unspecified foreign national.

The SSG has accused the pair of illegally selling and purchasing uranium, claiming the two had agreed to sell the uranium for $3 million.

The agency did not specify the amount of uranium confiscated, nor whether one suspect intended to sell it to the other or if the two intended to sell the amount to a third party.

The SSG also did not specify if, or to what level the uranium had been enriched, but did note that the level of radioactive alpha and gamma emissions suggested it could be used for the ‘manufacture of various explosive devices for carrying out a terrorist attack, or for causing other severe, mass, and fatal consequences’.

Photos shared by the SSG showed what appeared to be a law enforcement officer conducting a radioactivity test on two vials — likely carrying the uranium — placed on a car’s windshield.

The two suspects are being charged with the illegal handling of nuclear material or equipment — a crime carrying a prison sentence of 5–10 years in prison.

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