05/17/2002 - Updated 10:14 AM ET

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican police on Thursday found a stolen truck that had been carrying 10 tons of sodium cyanide, but most of the deadly chemical was missing.

The Environmental Ministry urged border guards to ensure that large amounts of the chemical weren't smuggled out of the country. Officials called the alert "precautionary" and said they had no evidence any sodium cyanide had left Mexico.

Authorities cordoned off the area around the truck, abandoned along a highway in Zacatlan, about 120 miles northwest of Mexico City in central Puebla state.

Only about half a ton of the cyanide, contained in barrels, was still inside the truck and investigators were searching for the remainder, police said.

One barrel had been opened, sparking concerns of a health hazard. But officials found no evidence of contamination, said Frederico Perez, director of police in neighboring Hidalgo state.

No one has been arrested in connection with the truck robbery, which happened last Friday. Police were seeking information about three armed men who authorities believe stole the vehicle, Perez said.

Sodium cyanide is used in gold and silver mining. If inhaled or ingested, it attacks the nervous system and can cause a person to suffocate within minutes.

Perez said it was extremely unlikely the chemical was stolen for a terrorist attack.

"The possibility of terrorism is minimal," he said. "Knowing how these robberies work, it's likely that the robbers didn't even know what was inside. They also probably wouldn't know how to use those chemicals."

Truck robberies are common in Mexico, particularly in the region just north of the capital, Mexico City.

The truck had left from Queretaro, a colonial city 115 miles north of Mexico City, and was headed to Pachuca, capital of Hidalgo state, about 30 miles northeast of the capital.

"Perez said it was extremely unlikely the chemical was stolen for a terrorist attack."


...Yeah, and what would be another use for it?

extracting gold or silver

and how could acouple thieves make money from that?

My God !
They could put this stuff in the Tijuana water supply and kill anybody who drank water.

(Mongers and chicas - that only drink beer - will be safe, of course)

Check this out:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1831000/1831511.stm

You better fucking believe that the FBI and CIA are looking at this shit... and all the while those STUPID CUNTS Feinstein and Clinton are shooting their ugly mouths off - would someone PLEASE BITCH SLAP THESE TWO CUNTS for me?

... and while you're at it, would you CUFF DASCHLE UP SIDE THE HEAD too?

"Italian police explore Al Qaeda links in cyanide plot"


http://csmonitor.com/2002/0307/p07s02-woeu.html

From what I can tell, cyanide gas is the bigger danger than cyanide in the water supply... as diluted cyanide will fairly quickly evaporate in surface water... so - you can't simply "chuck it in a reservior", and expect it to do anything.

Evidently, to create a cyanide gas attack, one requires a incendiary device capable of sustaining very high temperatures over an extended period of time... possibly to vaporize a sealed and diluted container of cyanide compound.

Add an acid to sodium cyanide, and you have hydrogen cyanide gas. Even technical-grade hydrochloric acid that you can buy at any hardware/home supply store will do the trick.

In my line of work, I've worked with small quantities of sodium cyanide. (believe it or not, it's a pretty common and useful research chemical) Even when dealing with a small amount of the stuff, one of the cardinal rules is "don't mix it with acid".

It's true that hydrogen cyanide (a gas) is more dangerous than sodium cyanide (a solid). However, sodium cyanide is not something you'd want in the hands of terrorists, either. 20 to 30 milligrams in a glass of water is enough to kill an adult. Besides the fact that it can easily be converted to hydrogen cyanide gas, dumping it into a reservoir would not be a pretty sight, although I doubt that it would cause mass casualties. Diego is correct when he says that it decomposes rapidly in aqueous solution, and I would think that the more dilute, the more rapidly it would decompose.

I think the biggest danger from cyanide would be hydrogen cyanide gas fed into the air intake of a large building. That might be a challenging thing to pull off logistically.

The incendiary device idea might be feasible also.

"it decomposes rapidly in aqueous solution" That's good.

One of my biggest concerns after 9-11 is that someone would put something into Lake Mead. I can only imagine what would happen to the economy of the whole S.W. United States.

I don't know the total volume of water in Lake Mead, but I'll bet that even if all ten tons of cyanide from that truck somehow found its way into that body of water, the overall concentration of cyanide would be lower than that 20 milligrams in a glass of water figure I quoted above. If anyone has access to the numbers and wants to crunch them, go ahead. I might do it later if I have time.

Plus, it would take a lot of time for it to diffuse evenly, and most of it would probably break down by then.

If someone wanted to mess with the Lake Mead water supply, they'd probably be more inclined to attack Hoover Dam. Just imagine what a large bomb or another airliner attack would do. I remember reading an article somewhere that dealt with that possibility.

Hoover Dam has taken the precautions of only letting passenger vehicles drive over dam. No trucks, busses, or RVs.

I don't think that there is anyway that anyone could place explosives in a place that could cause any damage to the dam itself, and even if some was to try and hit the dam with a passenger plain they would must likely hit the canyon wall before the dam.

I started thinking of the water suply when the Coast Gaurd starting patrols of the water intakes. I don't know if they still are or not though.

Economically-speaking, destroying Hoover dam would be far worse than destroying the WTC.

But, I would have to agree, it would take a pretty good pilot to pull it off... and I think the US has gotten out of the terrorist pilot training business... for a few years, at least.

"for a few years, at least."

I really hope people don't forget the events of 9-11 like they forgoten past events.

Ask people on Dec. 7th if they know what day it is. Their answer will most likely be "Thursday".