NUCLEAR MATERIAL SEIZED

Interpol sources are reporting that Bulgarian police, acting on intelligence collected from unidentified "foreigners," were able to prevent a shipment of lethal nuclear enrichment material from crossing into Romania. It is believed that the final destination of the dangerous material was to be Iran.

The supposition of the Balkan police forces, is that it is linked to Iran’s nuclear quest. However, they did go on to say "then again, there are always al-Qaida armorers keen to buy dirty bomb material."

Apparently this was not the first time and that since the beginning of 2005 more than 10 kilograms of Hafnium, a material which could be "the dirty component" in a terrorist dirty bomb, were confiscated.

This most recent success, in intercepting nuclear enriched material, resulted in nabbing 3,5 kilograms on the Romanian-Bulgarian border. A police source said the shipment, discovered in a car driven by a Bulgarian national, was confiscated in Russe in the northeastern Danube region. Investigators linked this shipment to the so-called Romanian Arab Mafia.

Police say years ago the Romanian capital of Bucharest became a hub of Arab militant activity, at times supported by ousted and later executed President Nicolae Ceausescu. Unlike most former Communist states in eastern Europe, Romania has a long history of ties to the Arab world. "Tens of thousands of Arab “students” military trainees and other assorted dubious figures from the West Bank, Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon, passed or spent some years in pre 1989 Romania. They learned the language and have maintained ties with some locals. As a testament to this, the Arab Mafia still flourishes in what passes for Romania’s private sector.”

"The present situation in Romania in connection to jihadi and Arab intelligence activity is best described by a Romanian source who requested to remain anonymous to avoid endangering his job. According to him there are in Romania anywhere between 250,000 to 400,000 Muslims of whom many are illegal residents with ties to organized crime and to a variety of terror groups. Some of those groups are affiliated to the Iraqi insurgency and to supporters of Musab al-Zarqawi."

"It is important to differentiate between terrorists, narco-terrorists and Arab organized crime in Romania. Each group has a different goal but in the murky world of terror and counter-terror the dividing lines are blurred, as all criminal groups practically need each other to further their goals."

The CIA claim Romania is one of the major centers for drug trans-shipments from Asia, Central Asia and Latin America. Terrorists (especially al-Qaida) maintain close involvement with drug lords and smugglers.

"One source said the high standard of Romanian higher education, and a vast pool of unemployed or underemployed professionals, enables criminal and terrorist groups to find experts in cyber crime, chemistry, electronics and more."

One officer stated that Bucharest is becoming the capital of methemphetamine production with many high-class laboratories capable of manufacturing explosives as well as drugs, including the design of dirty bombs.

"The findings along the Romanian-Bulgarian border raised the alarm among law enforcement agencies in the west where governments continue to wait anxiously and with great fear for what will sooner or later become a mega terrorist strike with the use of a WMD. The material en route to the wrong hands via the ties of the Romanian Arab mafia, should send signals this danger is not only present but imminent."

This report based on information from the G2Bulletin.