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Mexico recovers stolen radioactive material after container left on city bench

By Andrew V. Pestano

MEXICO CITY, Aug. 8 (UPI) -- Mexican officials have recovered radioactive materials that were stolen from a truck after the container holding isotopes of americium, beryllium and caesium was left on a bench.

Mexico's National Coordination of Civil Protection of the Interior Ministry issued an alert on Friday after the radioactive material was stolen from a government truck in Mexico's northern Sonora state, which was under alert along with the states of Baja California, Chihuahua and Sinaloa.

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The Sonora State Civil Protection Unit found the radioactive material Saturday night after receiving a call that a person in a gray Nissan Sentra left a black bag on a bench in Sonora's municipality of Cajeme.

"Radioactive source has been found in Sonora. National Civil Protection lifts alert," agency coordinator Luis Felipe Puente said in a statement.

In February, Mexico issued an alert in the state of Querétaro after a container carrying radioactive iridium-192 was taken during a vehicle theft. The container was later recovered.

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