Italians Seize Powerful Military Explosives, Possibly Originating From Iran

Published September 22, 2010 Associated Press

ROME -- Italian authorities have seized a "huge" shipment of powerful RDX explosives that may have originated in Iran, police said Wednesday.

The explosives were seized Tuesday from the container ship Finland that docked in Gioia Tauro, a port in southern Calabria.

Reggio Calabria police chief Carmelo Casabona told Italy's private Sky 24 television news that the amount was too large to be destined only to the Calabrian mob.

Casabona says police have yet to identify who had control of the explosives but that it seems the shipment began in Iran. He gave no details at a news conference Wednesday.

Another police official, Renato Cortese, told The Associated Press by telephone that officials were examining the ship's log to try to determine exactly where it originated and where it was headed.

Media say at least 7 tons of RDX have been found.

Also known as T4, RDX is a powerful military explosive that has been used in several devastating attacks believed carried out by the Italian Mafia in past years.

The Finland is owned by an Italian-Swiss company, MSC, and was sailing under a Liberian flag, the officials said. A switchboard operator who answered the telephone at the company office in Geneva said no one was available to speak to the media.


Italian police stand guard by a confiscated container, in the port of Gioia Tauro, near Reggio Calabria, southern Italy, on Wednesday, Sept. 22, 2010. Police officials say they have seized a "huge'' shipment of powerful RDX explosives that may have originated in Iran. Reggio Calabria police chief Carmelo Casabona told an Italian private television news that the amount was too large to be destined only to the Calabrian mob. (AP Photo/Adriana Sapone)

My wager would be a "Gaza Peace Flotilla" shipment.

(09-22-2010 08:04 PM)I45owl Wrote:  My wager would be a "Gaza Peace Flotilla" shipment.

Lately the SOP for the Iranians has been to load lethal cargo on an Iran Air Flight that originates in Tehran, stops in Damascus, and then terminates in Caracus, Venezuela.

They call the flight "Air Terror". But it was terminated last week.

http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/...n-canceled

"Barnes writes that for the past three years, every other Tuesday, Flight VO3744 would roll out to a secluded loading platform at Simon Bolivar Airport in Caracas. Shrouded from public view and unencumbered by the normal exit procedures, a select passenger list would board the flight.

According to Western intelligence agencies, Venezuelan opposition figures, and a former Iran-based spy for the CIA, the flight would carry illicit, lethal cargoes — such as explosives and possibly radioactive materials — and provide safe passage to terrorists, spies, weapons experts, senior Iranian intelligence operatives, and members of both Hezbollah and Hamas."

In the picture, those Italian cops look lilke they are wearing jeans....

How did a flight like that not go "missing" 2 years ago? Maybe the intel received on the ground at landing and takeoff in Venezuela was more valuable?

Things like this should be the top of Obama's list in his talk at the UN, instead of the Arizona Law.

(09-23-2010 08:10 AM)Lord Stanley Wrote:  In the picture, those Italian cops look lilke they are wearing jeans....

Hey, those are Versace Jeans.

(09-23-2010 08:10 AM)Lord Stanley Wrote:  How did a flight like that not go "missing" 2 years ago? Maybe the intel received on the ground at landing and takeoff in Venezuela was more valuable?

Two years ago, we were in the middle of election season. And since then, well, testicles have been the main constituent of our trade deficit.

(09-23-2010 10:54 AM)I45owl Wrote:  

(09-23-2010 08:10 AM)Lord Stanley Wrote:  In the picture, those Italian cops look lilke they are wearing jeans....

Hey, those are Versace Jeans.

They look more Cavalli/D&G... but I'm nitpickin'.