Deadly Uranium package seized at Heathrow airport originated in Pakistan: Reports

United Kingdom’s Border Force officials seized material containing uranium at London’s Heathrow Airport last month that originally came from Pakistan.  

British media reported on Wednesday that a counter-terrorism investigation has been launched after the seizure on December 29 on a passenger flight that arrived from Oman.

“Found by Border Force staff at Heathrow airport, the uranium was contained in a package of scrap metal that originally came from Pakistan and had come to the UK via a passenger flight from Oman on 29 December. It was bound for an Iranian business with premises in the UK,” the Guardian reported today.

The leading UK daily quoted Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a former head of the British army’s chemical weapons unit, as saying that he believed only trace amounts of uranium had been discovered and that it was unclear – “a million-dollar question” – what it could have been for.

The Sun, which first reported the seizure of “deadly shipment” said that Border Force agents swooped and isolated the unregistered shipment in a dedicated radioactive room before alerting the Counter-terror police which launched a probe into who sent the cargo.

“It originated from Pakistan and arrived at Terminal 4 on an Oman Air jet from Muscat. Cops were understood to be targeting an Iran-based firm with UK premises where the material was due to go to mystery recipients. No arrests have been made,” the newspaper reported.