Thread: 60 Missile warheads stolen from Romanian train - RECOVERED

18 July 2011 Last updated at 12:48 ET

Missile warheads stolen from Romanian train

The shipment, bound for a factory in Bulgaria, was under police guard.

Romanian officials have reassured the public after the theft of more than 60 missile warheads from a train.

The warheads were taken from a railway car carrying military equipment to neighbouring Bulgaria on Saturday.

Officials said the stolen warheads could not be detonated because they were in component form without explosives.

Investigators say the missiles could have been stolen for their scrap metal value.

Romanian media said when the freight train stopped in Giurgiu, southern Romania, it was found that doors on the railway car had been forced and four boxes of 16 warheads stolen.

Officials are investigating how the theft could have happened while the consignment was being guarded by paramilitary police.

Bulgaria's economy ministry said the warheads belonged to Grad missiles which are normally fired from multiple-rocket launchers.

In a statement it said the shipment was part of a transfer of "nonfunctional components and parts" for reprocessing at the VMZ factory - one of Bulgaria's largest military factories - in Sopot.

Romanian officials close to the investigation told two daily newspapers that the warheads did not contain explosives.

Romanian police spokesman Florin Hulea also reassured the public, saying the warheads posed no risk.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14189205

Posed No Risk..Very Interesting!!!! Yea,probably not to them they will run and hide in their little shelters but the public, that might be another story entirely....Isn't that getting to be a tired old story from all these kinds of people, including our own elite group of blowhards.


Kathyet

Romanians find 64 stolen missile warheads

By ALINA WOLFE-MURRAY, Associated Press
12:41 p.m., July 18, 2011

BUCHAREST, Romania — Romanian authorities said Monday they had found dozens of small, old rocket warheads stolen from a train carrying military equipment from Romania to Bulgaria stashed near a railway station in a village north of Bucharest.

Authorities promised that the 64 warheads posed no danger to the public but offered varying explanations why.

The Romanian national police said there was no risk because they were not attached to rockets. Spokesman Florin Hulea declined to provide further details.

Two daily newspapers cited officials close to the investigation as saying the warheads did not contain explosives. The papers, Evenimentul Zilei and Adevarul, did not identify their sources.

Bulgaria's Economy Ministry said the warheads belonged to 122mm (4.8-inch) diameter Grad rockets, which are typically fired from vehicle-mounted multiple-rocket launchers.

It said in a statement the shipment was part of a transfer of "nonfunctional components and parts" for reprocessing at the VMZ factory - one of Bulgaria's largest military factories - in Sopot, central Bulgaria, where the components and parts were to be replaced and the warheads prepared for sale.

"The fuses (warheads) were transported separately from the projectiles," the ministry added.

Transport police in the central city of Brasov told the Mediafax news agency that the warheads were in four boxes in one of the cars on a train carrying equipment from a Romanian company that produces artillery shells and ground-to-ground and air-to-ground missiles.

Marius Militaru, a spokesman for the interior ministry, told Antena 3 television station that the warheads were found intact in four boxes near the railway station of Chitila just north of Bucharest. He declined to provide further details citing an ongoing investigation.

Romanian officials also tried to portray the Saturday theft as accidental.

Eugen Badalan, a member of the parliamentary defense committee, said the thieves "had no idea what they stole," and prosecutors said they were investigating whether the components were stolen by scrap metal thieves.

However, only one of the eight cars on the 27-car train was broken into.

Mediafax reported that railway workers noticed the seals on a carriage door were broken, and the door was not properly closed, when the train reached Giurgiu, a Danube port that borders Bulgaria.

The Bulgarian Defense Ministry confirmed in a press release that the recipient of the fuses was a Bulgarian company, not its armed forces. It said the Interior Ministry's Dangerous Weapons Control Service had issued a permit for the transport of the delivery.

The train was loaded on Friday and stopped under guard overnight in the central Romanian town of Brasov, about 166 kilometers (103 miles) north of Bucharest, according to transport police. After leaving Saturday, it stopped for one hour in the mountain resort of Predeal.

Romanian national state company Romarm said the Bulgarian company was responsible for train security.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011 ... rheads/?ap