German Officials Seize Plutonium
At a glance:
- Series: Great Events: 1900-2001
- Categories: Diplomacy, International Relations, Foreign Affairs, Crime
- Subcategories: Nuclear Weapons, Power, Radiation
- Curriculum: 20th & 21st Century European History, German History
- Geographical Location: Germany
- Date: August 10, 1994
Article abstract: In a sting operation, German police confiscated 363 grams of extremely toxic plutonium-239 that had been smuggled from Moscow to Munich.
The Munich Sting Operation
On August 10, 1994, the Bavarian State Criminal Police detected the presence of radioactive material in a suitcase owned by Justiniano Torres BenÃtez, a Colombian who had arrived in Munich on Lufthansa flight 3369 from Moscow. The suitcase contained 363 grams of a reactor fuel mixture of enriched uranium-238 and plutonium-239 as well as 201 grams of lithium. This represented...
[The entire page is 987 words long]
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