FBI sting nabs two nuclear scientists

NEW YORK: In a sting operation, the FBI has arrested a nuclear scientist couple, who once worked at Los Alamos, the New Mexico atomic lab.

The Justice Department announced today, that Pedro Leonardo Mascheroni, a 75-year-old Argentine-born nuclear-weapons expert and naturalized American citizen, and his American wife, Marjorie Mascheroni, 67, have been indicted on charges of supplying secret nuclear-weapons information to someone they believed to have been a Venezuelan official, a US-based news agency reported.

The couple, who once worked in the weapons division at Los Alamos, was accused of dealing with an FBI undercover agent posing as a Venezuelan agent. The government did not allege that Venezuela or anyone working for it sought US secrets.

A law enforcement official familiar with the investigation, who asked for anonymity when discussing details of the case said it is fair to describe Mascheroni as a “rogue” scientist, who from 1979 to 1987, worked as a staff scientist in the Energy Department's Los Alamos National Lab.

The official said Mascheroni became alienated from his former colleagues at the lab after they refused to take up a scheme he had advocated for using advanced laser technology he believed could play a critical role in ensuring the reliability of America's nuclear arsenal.

Following their arrests on Friday, Mascheroni and his wife appeared in federal court in Albuquerque.