WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) - Trial is scheduled to begin in South Florida for an African man on charges of attempting to illegally broker uranium ore shipments to Iran.
Jury selection is scheduled Monday in West Palm Beach federal court for Patrick Campbell, who faces a maximum 20-year prison sentence if convicted.
Authorities say Campbell was negotiating with a Florida-based undercover U.S. agent posing as a uranium buyer acting on behalf of Iran to ship ore from Sierra Leone. He claimed his mines could produce enough to yield 1,000 tons of purified uranium for nuclear fuel or weapons.
Campbell was arrested last August at a New York airport on his way to a purported meeting with the undercover agent. Authorities say he had two uranium samples concealed in plastic bags in his luggage.
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