#9 - RW 286
RIA Novosti
December 10, 2003
THE HUNT FOR OSMIUM-187
Vyacheslav Lashkul, RIA Novosti observer

The Russian Interior Ministry's Economic Crime Department has successfully wrapped up one its most complicated cases, which involved arresting a gang dealing in precious metals.

This criminal saga began almost two years ago, when the police apprehended couriers illegally carrying the rare-earth metal osmium-187. The operation was conducted in Moscow, Volgograd, St Petersburg and Novosibirsk. The security services keep the illegal trade in precious metals under constant control, but the sale of osmium-187 attracted their attention also for another reason. It is a strategic dual-purpose material used in the defence industry as a catalyst to increase the blast range of a nuclear bomb.

The Defence Ministry's main intelligence department possessed information that Chechen terrorist groups were looking to secure secret nuclear technologies and raw materials for carrying out major terrorist acts. State Duma deputy Viktor Ilyukhin made this information public. The search for the intermediaries in the trade in osmium-187 led to a group headed by St Petersburg resident Vladimir Soltaganov, who turned out to have a whole network of accomplices. Investigator Marina Tsyvkina scrutinised the group's ties and discovered that it worked over an enormous territory. The blue silvery crystals of this rare platinum group metal had been smuggled from the Dzhezkazgan deposit in Kazakhstan, while samples had also been bought cheaply at factories with special laboratories that could also carry out isotope enrichment.

The investigation established that to check whether the osmium-187 was genuine or not, Soltaganov used to visit a laboratory at the Moscow Giredmet Institute, where he introduced himself as the deputy head of the Cosmoflot-Invest firm and even produced the appropriate papers so his samples could be examined. It turned out that he had never been on the Cosmoflot Invest staff, and the firm itself had long been closed down.

When the scope of this business became clear, senior figures in the Economic Crime Department decided to send officers to Soltaganov. Pretending to be interested in purchasing the metal, the sting pulled off a spectacular sting operation. The intermediaries who arrived at the agreed location did not suspect that their actions were being filmed. After receiving a package with glass tubes filled with osmium-187, the criminal investigation officers paid the seller $120,000. The other intermediaries approached the seller to get their shares of the profit, but were then surrounded by police officers and arrested.

The criminal case of the Soltaganov group, charged with illegally trading in precious metals, has been sent to the courts. It shows beyond any doubt that the group had established regular channels for osmium-187 illegal deliveries from the Dzhezkazgan ore basin. Porous borders and particular customs regulations between Russia and Kazakhstan allow criminals to smuggle their commodity with relative ease, while the sums on offer for the rare-earth metal prompts them to ignore the possible consequences.

Now the security services in both countries have a great deal of work ahead of them to put an end to the illegal trade in osmium-187.