Suspects arrested in heist of radioactive material in Mexico

MEXICO CITY -- Five men suspected of stealing a truck loaded with dangerous radioactive material in central Mexico have been arrested and ordered held for 40 days for questioning, an official said Monday.

A federal judge issued the order late Sunday. The men are part of a ring dedicated to stealing vehicles, the official said. They were arrested late last week.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said four of the detainees confessed to stealing the truck, unaware of its deadly cargo, and the fifth man purchased it from them.

A sixth person arrested with the group was a 16-year-old who was released because he is a minor.

All six were taken to a hospital with possible signs of radioactive poisoning but cleared Friday and released into police custody.

The truck was transporting medical equipment containing cobalt-60, used in the treatment of cancer, from a hospital in Tijuana to a nuclear waste storage dump north of Mexico City. Gunmen overpowered the driver in the early-morning hours of last Monday in Hidalgo state about 30 miles north of the capital and made off with the truck and its cargo.

The robbery touched off an urgent six-state search and an international scare that the radioactive material, an ingredient used in the making of dirty bombs, could end up in the wrong hands.

Authorities say they are now certain the thieves were after the truck, which they had planned to break down into parts, and not the radioactive material.

Four suspects were picked up by Hidalgo police as they drove two other stolen vehicles, the official said. They eventually confessed to their involvement in the truck theft, apparently after being told what it had contained, the official said, and identified their buyer.

The order to hold them for 40 days is a mechanism in Mexican law called arraigo. It allows authorities to continue interrogating the suspects in hopes of building a case against them and possibly ferreting out additional accomplices.

The thieves had ditched the box containing the cobalt-60 in a vacant field. A family of six stumbled across it and took it home, thinking they could sell it as scrap metal. They too were admitted to the hospital for observation but have been cleared and released.

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Twitter: @TracyKWilkinson

wilkinson@latimes.com