$500K Seized; Strange Situation At PA Nuke Plant

[RPankn]

$500K Seized; Strange Situation Reported At Nuclear Plant

POSTED: 8:49 am EDT April 19, 2006
UPDATED: 5:13 pm EDT April 19, 2006

SHIPPINGPORT, Pa. -- Two workers looking for tools set off a security situation at a Beaver County nuclear power plant that drew a response from police and federal investigators, WTAE Channel 4's Paul Van Osdol reported.

State police said the men drove up to the Beaver Valley Power Station in a tractor-trailer on Tuesday night to pick up two large containers of tools for a contractor for whom they worked.

Security guards stopped the men for a routine inspection, but they drove away, police said.

The guards became suspicious and called police, who pulled the truck over about a mile from the plant.

A state trooper got a warrant to search the vehicle and found a duffel bag, which he said contained $504,230 in mostly small bills.

The driver denied knowing anything about the money or who gave it to him, so the trooper seized it, police said.

A spokesman for the FBI confirmed that the Joint Terrorism Task Force responded to the situation in conjunction with state police, but he said they don't think terrorism is involved. He would not give any other details.

The men, who are from Houston, said they picked up the bag in Chicago and had no knowledge of its contents, according to police.

Investigators think the cash may have a drug connection. A police dog picked up the scent of drugs in the sleeper cab of the truck where the bag was found, police said.

Both men were detained and later released. No charges have been filed.


www.thepittsburghchannel.com/news/8821721/detail.html

[RPankn]

No one claims $500,000 stash in truck

Thursday, April 20, 2006

By Cindi Lash, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

When security guards at the Beaver Valley Power Station discovered a bag containing thousands of dollars in a tractor-trailer cab, one of the vehicle's occupants told them his boss planned to use the cash to buy a truck.

It must have been some truck.

State police said the bag, which guards spotted on Tuesday while conducting a routine search of the tractor-trailer at the entrance to the nuclear power plant, contained 10 plastic-wrapped bundles of cash totaling $504,230.

Police later seized the money and bag after a dog trained to detect drugs sniffed and reacted to the bag, indicating contact with controlled substances.

The truck driver and passenger, whose names were withheld but who are from Texas, were released without charges because no apparent crime had been committed.

State police were investigating to determine who owns the money and how it got into the tractor-trailer. If no one comes forward to claim legitimate ownership of the money, police said, they will begin proceedings for forfeit of the cash to the government.

"I wanted to know, why is somebody running around with that amount of money when they're not in a Brink's truck?" said Shippingport police Sgt. R.N. Davis Jr., who pulled the truck over after it left the power plant in Beaver County.

Investigators also notified the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force, but said they do not believe the money or truckers are linked to workers or activities at the plant.

"Most likely, they were just between runs," said Trooper Jonathan Bayer. "The investigation is continuing, but there is no indication that there is any connection to the power plant."

The truckers worked for a company hired by San Francisco-based Bechtel Corp., which is performing construction work and replacing equipment at the plant, said Richard Wilkins, spokesman for plant owner First Energy Nuclear Operating Co.

The name of the company was not released, but police said the truckers had come from Chicago and were making a scheduled stop to pick up and transport containers of tools to Youngstown, Ohio.

The white semi-truck and empty flatbed trailer pulled up to the plant entrance about 4:15 p.m. Plant security officers told them every vehicle entering the plant must be searched and obtained permission to do so, police said.

In the search, the officers found a green, blue and black duffel bag with a padlock in the sleeper berth of the cab, Trooper Bayer said. The truckers didn't have a key for the lock, so guards cut it off and spotted cash inside, he said.

The truckers said the money wasn't theirs and they didn't know how it got there, Trooper Bayer said. In court papers filed to obtain a search warrant, state police said one of the truckers told security officers that "it was their [boss's] money and he was going to buy a truck with it."

But when the security workers called the truckers' boss in Houston, he also said he knew nothing about the money. The security officers called police, but the truckers backed out of the plant and drove off.

"There's nothing [in the law] that says you can't carry a lot of cash around with you. It's just a little unusual," Mr. Wilkins said. "Any kind of unusual or suspicious activity, or even a person who's acting a little suspiciously, whether they've broken a law or tried to do something that was against the regulations on site, would be reported."

Police broadcast a description of the truck and Sgt. Davis pulled it over after spotting it on Route 168 south, near the Shippingport Bridge. He said the truckers were polite, but the passenger had no identification and said it had been stolen from the truck the night before.

"Your ID is stolen but not that bag of cash? Red flags were popping up all over," Sgt. Davis said.

State police also arrived and obtained a warrant to search the truck. They said the cash was packed in bundles of $50,000, each containing 10 packets of $5,000 in mostly $20 bills but also $100, $50 and $10 bills. The bundles were tightly compressed and wrapped in silver tape and plastic, but their contents could be seen.

"I picked the bag up with one hand and then said 'Whoa.' It had to weigh a good 60 pounds," Sgt. Davis said. "I told the state police, 'This is all yours.' I said [there is] no way I'm counting this all night."


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Staff writer Jonathan D. Silver contributed. Cindi Lash can be reached at [e-mail] or 412-263-1973. )

[RPankn]

Nuke plant riddle: Whose $504,000?

Bill Vidonic, Times Staff

04/20/2006

SHIPPINGPORT - Two men from Houston, Texas, transporting more than $504,000 in cash were stopped at a security entrance to the Beaver Valley Nuclear Power Station in Shippingport Tuesday evening and briefly held but were not charged with any crime, state police said.

State police and federal officials said Wednesday they don't think the incident, though unusual, was a part of any terrorism or threat against the nuclear plant or employees there.

Shippingport police Sgt. Robert Davis said state police and federal agencies will continue to follow up leads in Chicago and Houston to determine who owns the money, which state police said could be tied to drug proceeds.

The men, Donald R. Kingsby and William Lewis, were released Tuesday evening, though state police kept the money because they suspected there could be drug residue on it. The men denied the money belonged to them.

According to a state police search warrant, the men, with Kingsby driving, went to the security gate at the Shippingport plant around 4:15 p.m. Tuesday in a semi rig hauling an empty flatbed trailer.

Todd Schneider, a spokesman for FirstEnergy Corp., which owns the nuclear plant, said the men were expected at the facility. With construction work on a $300 million upgrade to the plant wrapping up, Schneider said, contractors are beginning to remove equipment.

Kingsby and Lewis, Schneider said, were to pick up containers loaded with tools belonging to a contractor at the plant and take them to another work site.

Schneider and state police did not release the name of the trucking company or say to which contractor the equipment belonged.

According to the search warrant, security officers at an entrance gate, following normal procedures, stopped the rig and told Kingsby and Lewis they would have to search the vehicle, and the men consented.

During the search, according to state Trooper Jonathan Bayer, security guards found a green, blue and black duffel bag, the size of a large gym bag, in the sleeper portion of the rig.

The bag had a lock on it, Bayer said, but when security guards asked Kingsby to unlock the bag, he said he didn't have a key. A guard then cut the lock off the bag and saw a large amount of cash inside. Kingsby said the money belonged to his boss, who had planned to buy a truck, according to the warrant.

When security guards called Kingsby's boss, whom state police did not name, he denied any knowledge of the money, according to the warrant.

Kingsby's boss told security guards, according to the warrant, that the two men had driven from Houston and had stopped in Chicago on Monday before heading to Shippingport.

Because of the confusion surrounding the money, Bayer said, security guards notified state police, who began heading toward the plant. In the meantime, Kingsby turned the rig around and drove away, Bayer said.

Davis said Kingsby and Lewis called their boss while state police were being notified, and their boss told the men to leave and he would send another truck to remove the tools.

Security guards do not have the authority to keep people at the plant, Bayer said, and can only ask for state police to respond.

State police asked Shippingport police for help, and Davis stopped the rig on Route 168, about a mile from the plant. State Trooper Josh Thomas, in a press release, said that when he arrived at the rig, Kingsby "stated that he didn't know anything about the money or who gave it to him."

Inside the bag, Bayer said, troopers found the cash, most of it in $20 bills, but also in $100s, $50s and $10s, sorted in 10 bundles wrapped in plastic and duct tape, which state police said is how drug money is commonly packaged.

Because the incident started at the nuclear plant, and in the wake of increased security after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, members of a joint terrorism task force made up of state troopers and FBI agents were also notified, and went to where the rig was stopped.

A state police drug dog was also brought in, according to the warrant, and when sniffing the outside of the vehicle, indicated there might be drugs inside. State police then obtained a search warrant and searched the rig but found no drugs or any other illegal items inside, according to the warrant.

Bayer said because Kingsby and Lewis denied ownership of the money - and because there was an indication by the dog there might be some type of drug residue on the money - police confiscated it.

However, Kingsby and Lewis were allowed to go on their way, Bayer said, because "no criminal statutes were violated." Bayer added that state police are continuing to investigate the incident, including trying to determine where the money came from and to whom it belongs. If it goes unclaimed after a period of time, the money could be claimed by the state, Bayer added.

"It's still under investigation," Davis said. "You've got three people and (this duffel bag), and nobody wants to claim it, but nobody wants to walk away from it either. We're talking a half-million dollars."

Schneider said the pair never got into the plant, and there have been no recent threats.

William Crowley, a spokesman for the Pittsburgh FBI office, said federal agents were involved in the investigation because the incident started at the nuclear plant. However, he said federal investigators did not think the incident was related to any terrorist activity.

"It was just unusual activity, particularly in the location where it occurred," Crowley said.

Diane Screnci, a spokeswoman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said Wednesday that her agency was not investigating the incident.

"It is a local law enforcement issue, not a nuclear safety issue," Screnci said. "Our jurisdiction involves the safety and security of the plant."

The NRC was satisfied that the guards at the Shippingport plant handled the incident properly, Screnci added.

Bill Vidonic can be reached online at [e-mail].


www.timesonline.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=16506638&BRD=2305&PAG=461&dept_id=478569&rfi=6

[RPankn]

Stop at nuke plant costs truckers $504K

By Brian Bowling
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, April 20, 2006

Here's a tip for people transporting bundles of drug-tainted money: Avoid nuclear power plants.

Two men in a flatbed tractor-trailer owned by a Texas company lost more than $500,000 after they tried to enter FirstEnergy's Beaver Valley Power Station in Shippingport, Beaver County, authorities said Wednesday.

A security guard found a large green, blue and black gym bag crammed with 10 bundles of cash wrapped in plastic and covered with duct tape after the men pulled the truck into the plant entrance at 4:15 p.m. Tuesday.

Trooper Jonathan Bayer said police confiscated the money because of the "totality" of the situation and not just because a police dog detected traces of drugs on it.

"It's more than the hit on the money. It's the way it was packaged and that no one is claiming ownership," he said.

FirstEnergy security guards first questioned the men about the money and then contacted state police. The two men, meanwhile, turned the rig around and headed south on Route 168. Police declined to identify the men or their employer.

Shippingport police stopped the truck a mile down the road in front of Don Cox's home. Local police were quickly joined by state troopers, the FBI and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Cox, 69, saw one officer carrying the bag from the truck and figured it contained about $100,000. He was off by about $404,000.

"When he picked it up, you could tell it was heavy. I didn't know it was that kind of money," he said.

Shippingport police Chief Michael Pantaleo said truckers are frequently surprised by the plant's strict rules. Even licensed firearms, for example, are prohibited on the facility, so truckers frequently store their weapons with the police while picking up or dropping off loads. This is the first time someone has tried to go through plant security with a gym bag full of money, Pantaleo said.

"It was a busy day," he said.

The truckers were there to pick up two containers of tools for a contractor working on an upgrade of one of the nuclear plant's two reactors, FirstEnergy spokesman Todd Schneider said. With the job done, project contractors are picking up and moving on to their next jobs, he said.

Every vehicle entering or leaving the plant is searched thoroughly. A security guard cut a lock off the gym bag when the two men said they didn't have a key for it.

Bayer said state police didn't arrest the men because, so far, there's no evidence they broke the law.

The men say their boss gave them the bag and that he was planning to buy a truck with the money. Their boss told FirstEnergy security that he knew nothing about the money and that the men had made a stop in Chicago on Monday.

Bayer said that if no one claims the money, the state will seek to have it forfeited. If someone claims it, police have a few questions for him or her.

Brian Bowling can be reached at [e-mail] or [phone].


www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/trib/regional/s_445487.html

[RPankn]

$500k cash at nuclear plant, update

by Thistime
Fri Apr 28, 2006 at 01:42:13 PM PDT

Last week I posted this diary about $500,000 confiscated by local authorities from two men at Beaver Valley Power Station. The cash was found during a routine search by security guards of the tractor trailer as it entered the plant. The truckers, who worked for a company hired by San Francisco-based Bechtel Corp., left the plant immediately after the discovery, without picking up their cargo of tools. The security guards, who are not empowered with authority to arrest, then notified local sheriff. The sheriff in turn stopped the truck and after drug dogs reacted to a smell within, searched the tractor. Arguably, that amount of cash would always smell like drugs to a dog, but the drivers didn't object to the confiscation of the money.

The drivers weren't arrested because entering a nuclear power plant with a half a million dollars isn't a crime. The Department of "Homeland Security" wasn't interested either. So the drivers went about their business, with the official explanation incident as "drug related."

But the name of the owner of the trailer has now been published

There has been a continuing thread at DU about all this which I rediscovered today.

It seems that the registered owner of the trailer is also a military man.

Security guards, who were searching the rig and flatbed the two men were driving into the plant, found a duffel bag containing $504,230, which state police later said they believe is related to drug trafficking.

According to Texas driving records, the rig and flatbed trailer were registered to Glenn E. Marsh, 37, also of Houston. No one answered the phone at Marsh's home Saturday, and Kingsby and Lewis could not be reached Saturday.

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The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Thursday it considered the matter closed on its end and was satisfied that security guards had done their job properly and that there was no security breach at the plant.

On Friday, a spokeswoman for the federal Department of Homeland Security said the agency had been notified of the incident, which was not being viewed as a security threat. The department said it would not be involved in the investigation.

Lt. Glenn E. Marsh, who was stationed in Bosnia, now lives near Ft. Hood (I can't link this without revealing personal information, but if you're interested Google his name). The pdf link that verified his position in Bosnia stopped working as I was preparing this diary, which was strange, but the Google cache still has it.

There has been recent suspicious damage recently at a nuclear facility in the US.


FBI probes nuclear reactor hole

The FBI says it "has a few leads"
A Florida energy company has called in the FBI and offered a $100,000 reward to try and find out who drilled a hole in one of its nuclear power stations.

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It had been drilled - inadvertently or deliberately - into a cooling system pipe for one of its nuclear reactors.

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It is now investigating the damage, along with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

A Florida Power spokeswoman said that the company thought the hole was produced intentionally, but didn't know if it was a case of human error or a deliberate act of sabotage.

The reactor had been shut down for routine maintenance, but many of the contractors hired to work on the plant have since left the site and might not know about the problem.

skip



It is just so strange that there is no federal interest in why a former(?)military man, who lives near Ft. Hood, and who happens to own a truck which attempted to enter a nuclear plant with half a million dollars cash. And that the reported owner of the cash hasn't bothered to pick it up. It's darn close to impossible to believe that this is worthy of immediate dismissal.


www.dailykos.com/story/2006/4/28/164213/351

[RPankn]

Funny how these two incidents happened after contractors were doing repair work at both plants.

Last Updated: Saturday, 8 April 2006, 00:40 GMT 01:40 UK

FBI probes nuclear reactor hole

A Florida energy company has called in the FBI and offered a $100,000 reward to try and find out who drilled a hole in one of its nuclear power stations.
Workers at Florida Power and Light found the small hole when doing pre-start up tests on a reactor at the Turkey Point Unit Three power plant.

It had been drilled - inadvertently or deliberately - into a cooling system pipe for one of its nuclear reactors.

Florida Power has now repaired the damage and plans to restart the unit.

Sabotage or accident?

"At no time was the public's safety at risk," said an FBI statement.

It is now investigating the damage, along with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

A Florida Power spokeswoman said that the company thought the hole was produced intentionally, but didn't know if it was a case of human error or a deliberate act of sabotage.

The reactor had been shut down for routine maintenance, but many of the contractors hired to work on the plant have since left the site and might not know about the problem.

"This way they will certainly hear about it," the spokeswoman told Reuters.


news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4890204.stm

[Moses]

I don't understand the lack of interest or why the name of the trucking company and the contractors were kept out of the papers.