Argentine police seek stolen cyanide derivative
Date: 26-Aug-02
Country: ARGENTINA
The substance was stolen from a large truck on Monday as it was being driven to a petrochemical plant near the capital, a court official overseeing the case said.
The vehicle was found abandoned later the same day, while the container it was carrying was found on Wednesday, its cargo replaced with boxes containing recently stolen dialysis materials.
"The container was found, but it contained another cargo - dialysis materials which had been stolen from Customs," the official said. "We believe it was carried out by a very professional band of thieves."
A spill of the same toxic material - which can be used to make crop fumigation materials among other uses - in a poor Buenos Aires suburb a decade ago killed seven people.
In May, thieves in Mexico stole a truck carrying 10 tonnes of lethal sodium cyanide, sparking fears it could be used by terrorists, but the majority of the shipment later was recovered.
