Couple tried to sell nuclear arms secrets: FBI

A US scientist and his wife who worked at the leading nuclear research site were arrested Friday and charged with trying to sell secrets to help Venezuela start a nuclear weapons program, US officials said Saturday.

The pair, both US citizens, "have been indicted on charges of communicating classified nuclear weapons data to a person they believed to be a Venezuelan government official and conspiring to participate in the development of an atomic weapon for Venezuela," the US Justice Department said.

The defendants, Pedro Mascheroni, 75, and Marjorie Roxby Mascheroni, 67, had both worked as contractors at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in the southwestern state of New Mexico, and could face life in prison if convicted on all charges.

They had sought $793,000 in payment for the restricted and classified data that they believed they had provided to a Venezuelan contact, but who was actually an undercover FBI agent.

The Justice Department was quick to acknowledge that the indictment does not allege any wrongdoing by the Venezuelan government or anyone acting on its behalf, and also said no one currently working at Los Alamos was charged or accused of wrongdoing.

However, the revelations could still sharpen relations between the United States and Venezuela, whose firebrand leftist President Hugo Chavez is a vocal critic of Washington.

FBI agents arrested Mascheroni - a US citizen from Argentina - and his US-born wife early Friday.

The department revealed a series of startling details about the couple's plans to pass the nuclear secrets to Venezuela, beginning in March 2008.

Pedro Mascheroni is a physicist who worked at Los Alamos from 1979 to 1988, while his wife worked there between 1981 and earlier this year, the Justice Department said. Both held security clearances that allowed them access to certain classified information.

AFP