Man arrested in possession of 18lb of mercury

A SUSPECTED member of a Chechen gang was arrested in Moscow while carrying nearly 18lb of mercury, and authorities believe he intended to use the poison in a terror attack, police said yesterday.

Sergei Krymgerei, an alleged member of prominent Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev’s gang, was arrested by police acting on a tip, city police spokesman Filipp Zolotnitsky said. The suspect was carrying a champagne bottle full of the highly toxic substance when arrested, the Interfax news agency reported.

“Such an amount of mercury would poison a very large number of people,” Zolotnitsky said on NTV television. The report did not say when Krymgerei was arrested. He has refused to give any testimony.