As a result of a police operation conducted in Pursakar, a region of Ankara, four suspects were detained. They planned to sell the californium for $72 million. According to the newspaper, the market value of californium is $4 million per gram.
READ MORE: Explosion Hits Area Near Police Station in Southern Turkey — Reports
It is assumed that the detainees acted not independently, but were part of a criminal group.
Law enforcers are investigating the circumstances of the appearance of an illegal material in the Turkish capital.
Californium, an element which isn't known to occur in nature, was first synthesized in 1950 at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California and is only produced in the United States and Russia.