Undercover FBI agents, working with authorities in Eastern Europe, have confirmed that they thwarted several attempts by gangs that tried to sell bomb-making radioactive materials to terrorist organizations in the Middle East, the Huffington Post reported.
Most of these gangs were affiliated with Russia, and the most recent attempt was in February of this year, when one gang member offered to sell a deadly cache of radioactive material to the Islamic State.
Investigators revealed that these gangs could be connected to the FSB, the former Russian Spy agency that later morphed into the present KGB, and are mostly active in the tiny country of Moldova.
A smuggler met an undercover investigator in a dance club in Chisinau, Moldova's capital, and asked for 2.5 million Euros in exchange for radioactive material capable of contaminating a whole city block, the Chicago Tribune reported.
"You can make a dirty bomb, which would be perfect for the Islamic State," the smuggler told the agent. "If you have a connection with them, the business will go smoothly."
In another undercover operation, investigators filmed a smuggler ranting and voicing his hatred for America, boasting that he had the material needed to make an atomic bomb, and all that he was looking for was a buyer from the Middle East. The smuggler was quoted as saying, "I really want an Islamic buyer because they will bomb the Americans."
However, most of the Kingpins in these nuclear smuggling gangs almost always get away with it, according to International Business Times. Although the FBI was able to bust middle men smugglers in four undercover operations, no "big fish" was ever arrested, and some of those middlemen are already out of jail.
"We can expect more of these cases. As long as the smugglers think they can make big money without getting caught, they will keep doing it," a Moldovan police officer involved in the investigations, said.
