Great News: Mexico's Stolen Nuclear Material is Still Missing (Update: Found It)

Well, it’s not like there’s any danger of this stuff crossing the porous border into the US…

Tepojaco (Mexico) (AFP) – Mexican authorities scrambled Wednesday to find a truck containing “extremely dangerous” radioactive material used in medical treatment that was stolen by two gunmen two days ago, officials said.

The white Volkswagen Worker truck was transporting a teletherapy device containing cobalt-60 when it was stolen Monday in the central Hidalgo state town of Tepojaco, near Mexico City, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Mexico’s National Commission for Nuclear Safety and Safeguards (CNSNS) told AFP the medical equipment contained 60 grams of cobalt-60, a quantity which experts say could be enough to build a “dirty bomb” if it fell in the wrong hands.

The news gets even better.

BREAKING: Mexican nuclear official say stolen container of radioactive material found empty.

— The Associated Press (@AP) December 4, 2013

So they found the container, just not the incredibly dangerous material that was in it.

The mind reels with the possibilities here. Were the gunmen members of a cartel, members of Hizballah, which is known to be operating in Mexico, or did they steal intending to sell the material to either one?

Whoever they were, they appear to have targeted the truck for the theft, so they knew what it was carrying.

Update: It has been found.

MORE: Mexican official says stolen radioactive material found near where truck transporting it was abandoned: http://t.co/dPWPuIndqT -SS

— The Associated Press (@AP) December 4, 2013