During the latter days of the Cold War, the mythical substance Red Mercury was all the rage. Whether it was a code word for nuclear materials, a potentiator for nuclear bombs, a ‘short cut’ to nuclear weapons—nobody knew—it was for sale at a very high price, hundreds of thousands of dollars per gram. I, personally, was approached several times while working at the US Embassy in Damascus, as well as at the Frankfurt airport in Germany with offers to purchase the material.

Now, this magical element has transmogrified itself into a substance that multiplies money, at least in the minds of some con men in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Gazette reports:

SR400,000 exposes ‘red mercury’ con

JEDDAH – In a sting operation security officials were able to arrest a Nigerian national who claimed he was able to increase the funds of potential investors capitalizing on the desire of people to get rich quick by using “red mercury.”

After being tipped off by a potential investor, the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) kept the Nigerian national under surveillance and monitored his movements.

The alleged conman used several telephones to reach his customers the value of whose funds he said he would be able to increase several times over.
CID officials used their informant to pose as an interested customer looking to convert SR400,000 into SR2 million.
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