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Radioactive Bomb Case Turns Into Drug Case

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By ELAINE SILVESTRINI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 16, 2009

A man at the center of a case that began with a plan to sell a radioactive, dirty bomb component has agreed to plead guilty to a federal drug charge.

Christopher Benbow, 64, was sentenced in 2007 to life in prison, but had his drug conviction overturned by a federal appeals court. He was scheduled to go on trial again later this month.

The case "began like something out of a James Bond novel" and "morphed into an international drug conspiracy sting," said the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.

In December 2003, Benbow, a British national who was living in Estonia, approached a friend in Miami he thought had ties to the U.S. government, according to evidence in Benbow's first trial and Benbow's plea agreement.

Benbow said he knew some Russians who were trying to sell three canisters of strontium 90, a radioactive isotope that can be used to make a "dirty bomb," court records show.

What followed included a December 2003 meeting in Tampa in which Benbow asked for $250 million for each canister, saying he wanted to get the substance off the world market and make a profit in the process, records show.

Benbow didn't know it, but the men he met with were government informants. The meeting was captured on video by the Drug Enforcement Administration.

During the Tampa meeting, Benbow told the two men he had a friend with connections to former KGB officers who were selling 9 kilograms of the radioactive isotope obtained in Kazakhstan.

Benbow said his sources were negotiating to sell the material to a group in Afghanistan.

The informants steered the transaction toward drugs, telling Benbow they didn't have the kind of money he wanted for the strontium 90. One of the informants, who used the name David Siegel and said he was Israeli, asked Benbow whether his sources would accept drugs instead.

Benbow wound up contacting people tied to British organized crime and negotiating the sale of cocaine destined for the streets of Europe.

Benbow eventually was arrested and convicted of conspiracy to possess more than 5 kilograms of cocaine with intent to distribute.

The charge Benbow has agreed to plead guilty to, conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute more than 5 kilograms of cocaine, carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. But he could receive a lower sentence under the terms of his plea agreement.

Reporter Elaine Silvestrini can be reached at (813) 259-7837

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