Germany Holds Ex-Soviets as Suspected Atomic Smugglers

Authorities on Monday were investigating a possible nuclear smuggling ring involving residents of the former Soviet Union, after the autobahn arrest of two immigrants with uranium stashed in the trunk of their Mercedes-Benz.

Bavarian state police said the unidentified men were trying to sell 2.6 pounds of the radioactive material for $1.1 million when arrested Thursday. In a statement released Monday, police said the men may merely have been couriers and that investigators are still seeking “whoever is behind it.”

Exactly where the slightly enriched uranium-235 came from and how it entered Germany is not yet known, police said.

Acting on an informant’s tip, police had placed the two men under surveillance before their arrest on the outskirts of Augsburg, the statement said. The uranium, in a lead casing, was found in a gym bag in the car trunk.

Police said the men were arrested without incident at an autobahn rest stop. They were being held without bail, pending investigation. Few details were released about the men, ages 42 and 36, who were described as ethnic Germans who had emigrated from the former Soviet Union.

Police said an expert from the international atomic watchdog organization Euratom was sent from Luxembourg to examine the uranium. Nuclear experts described the amount and potency of the uranium as relatively without danger.

But the purported attempt to peddle the uranium comes amid heightened Western concern over nuclear technology and material in the Commonwealth of Independent States. German television earlier this month broadcast footage of a Moscow middleman offering to sell uranium to its reporters in Russia.