CORUSCANT - Customs officials on Coruscant announced this morning that they had intercepted a shipment of foodstuffs from Mowgle that was found to be contaminated with trace amounts of destabilized hrucium, a form of industrial waste known to be toxic to most sentients and outlawed under New Republic standards.

Officials reassured the public that the freighter had been grounded before the shipment had entered Coruscant's food supply, but preliminary reports from the neighboring world Metellos (also on the freighter's delivery manifest), suggest that over thirty sentients have been diagnosed with acute hrucium poisoning in the last 12 hours.

Mowgle, a small agricultural world on the Outer Rim, was inducted into the New Republic earlier in the year and has since become a major supplier of crops and foodstuffs particularly to the populous Core Worlds. If the planet is found liable for the contaminated shipment, it may face significant Senate sanctions.

Tremaine Fowlkes, the Senator to Mowgle, was unavailable for comment.

Hrucium is a compound used in heavy industry that becomes destabilized and highly toxic after use. It is often used in construction and certain types of agricultural processing, but was banned by the New Republic's regulations bureau after the substance was deemed too dangerous for civilian use. It is suspected that an older model processing plant on Mowgle might have contaminated the shipment, though at present the exact cause remains unknown.

Customs officials are urging all worlds to ground imports from Mowgle until the situation has been resolved, while Metellos is reportedly inspecting its food supply at this hour and urging local distributors to be vigilant. The thirty-two sentients so far infected with hrucium-contaminated food are said to be in "serious, but stable condition," and local hospitals are anticipating more cases in the coming days.

The Coruscant Journal will closely follow this story as it develops.