CBRN event in India on Sat 10th August 2024

Patna: Gopalganj Police arrested three smugglers with rare Californium stone, a radioactive substance, to the value of approximately Rs 850 crore in the international market, an official said on Friday. Gopalganj SP Swarn Prabhat confirmed the seizure. He said that the accused were smuggling 50 grams of the substance. “We received a specific tip-off about the smuggling of a valuable substance in the district. Accordingly, we constituted a team comprising members from various specialised units, including the District Investigation Unit (DIU), Special Operations Group-7 (SOG-7), and the Special Task Force (STF), which was assembled under the supervision of the Station House Officer (SHO) of the Kuchaykot police station and deployed at Bihar-Uttar Pradesh-Balthari border,” Prabhat said. “The team apprehended the accused on Thursday evening. The suspects were travelling on a motorcycle and were found in possession of four mobile phones and 50 gram Californium,” Prabhat said. The Gopalganj SP said that Californium is a highly expensive radioactive substance with each gram reportedly valued at around Rs 17 crore in the international market, making the total value of the 50 gram stone approximately 850 crore.