THREE CHINAMEN BUSTED FOR SMUGGLING DEPLETED URANIUM

Uranium is twice as dense as lead. So are these guys:

Three Chinese men have been spared jail after they smuggled a ball of depleted uranium into the country, ignorant the 274-kg (604 lb) shiny lump was a health threat, local media reported.

The three scrap merchants bought the ball of low-radiation uranium metal in Kyrgyzstan last year, haggling a dealer down to a price of $2,000, the official news website of China's far northwest Xinjiang region (www.tianshan.com) reported.

They smuggled it into China, evading customs checks but apparently ignorant the interesting metal could be dangerous. One of them hid it in his father-in-law's home in Xinjiang.

"They were surprised that at night when the lights went out the treasure sparkled and glittered, and Wang chipped a piece from it and kept it beside his bed, sometimes playing with it," the report said of one of the men.

Twice as dense as lead, depleted uranium is the substance left after the more highly radioactive parts are extracted. It is used in armor-piercing ammunition.

MEXICAN TROOPS CAPTURE SUBMARINE SMUGGLING DRUGS

Amazing! You think maybe there are more dangerous things being smuggled in these submarines?

Mexican troops seized a small submarine smuggling drugs in the Pacific Ocean on Wednesday, the military said.

A navy plane spotted the craft about 140 miles south of the tourist resort of Huatulco, setting off a three-hour chase, Rear Adm. Hector Mucharraz told Reuters.

The green-colored submarine, carrying what was believed to be cocaine, was about 32 feet long and appeared to be a makeshift or modified vessel.

The Mexican government is increasingly using the military to fight drug smugglers who move South American cocaine through Mexico and into the United States.

President Felipe Calderon has sent thousands of troops to drug trafficking hot spots since he took office in December, 2006.

Smugglers have moved drugs in Mexico through tunnels under the U.S. border and hidden in canned food and dolls, but the navy said this is the first time it had seen them use a submarine.

But it's not the first time we've reported on submarines being used to smuggle.

NARCOTIC SUBMARINES POSE NEW CHALLENGE FOR US COAST GUARD

Is it just me, or is anyone else worried more about other things arriving by submarine? Things like this occur everyday, but thanks to Obama and his hate-filled wife, our national dialog is wasted on race problems that don't even exist.

The first time they found one, authorities dubbed it "Big Foot." They had heard rumors that such things existed, but nobody had actually seen one.

It was late 2006, and Big Foot was not lurking in a forest, but at sea, 90 miles (145 kilometers) southwest of Costa Rica. And it was not an ape-like creature, but a hulking, blue vessel resembling a submarine and carrying several tons of cocaine.

Authorities say they are detecting more and more seacraft like Big Foot -- known as self-propelled semi-submersibles -- carrying larger and larger loads of drugs.

Chugging around the southern curve of Central America and up towards the United States, they have formed a kind of illicit fleet and become a major drug trafficking tool.

"It's significant. We believe they can carry upwards of eight or 10 tons of cocaine," said Rear Admiral Joseph Nimmich, director of the Joint Interagency Task Force South in Key West, Florida, where military and government agencies track drug shipments.

Experts estimate 25 to 40 semi-subs left South America last year laden with cocaine, and they expect that figure to double in 2008.

It goes without saying that if 8-10 tons of cocaine can be smuggled in on one of these things, more dangerous items can too. My thoughts are, either the dolphins get busy helping us out, or we take them off the protected species list.