The radioactive material reported stolen earlier this weekend in northern Mexico has been recovered, national emergency management chief Luis Felipe Puente said.

“The radioactive source has been found and the protocol for its recovery has been implemented,” Puente said in a Twitter post.

Emergency management officials issued an alert Friday following the theft of the radioactive material, saying it “could pose a danger to human health if removed from its container.”

The robbery was the seventh such incident in Mexico in less than three years.

State police officers located the nuclear material in Cajeme, the Sonora state emergency management office said in a statement.

The radioactive source, whose theft was initially reported by Ciudad Obregon’s emergency management system, is the property of the northwestern state of Sonora’s Road Board, officials said.

A container removed from a truck was holding a radioactive source containing isotopes of americium, beryllium and caesium.

The material could “cause permanent injuries to someone who handles it or is in contact with it for a prolonged period of time,” emergency management officials said.

This is the seventh such incident since December 2013, when radioactive material (cobalt-60) intended for medical purposes was stolen during transfer by truck to a radioactive waste storage center.

The material was found two days later after an intense search. EFE

Mexico City, Aug 7 (EFE)