The plot thickens regarding a spate of ricin-infused letters that the American Secret Service has been intercepting on their way to U.S public officials. In recent weeks a number of these letters have been interdicted by authorities, their targets U.S senators, district judges, the mayor of New York and now the president of the United States himself.
Ricin is a carbohydrate-binding protein derived from the castor oil plant. An extremely small dose of the substance is enough to kill an adult human. It is lethal if ingested, though far more dangerous and at smaller doses if injected or inhaled. The substance works on the human body by preventing cells from assembling amino acids into proteins.
Two men have recently been charged with sending poison letters to public officials. Everett Dutschke was being held by the Justice Department under suspicion of extracting ricin and using it as a weapon. In a separate case Matthew Ryan Buquet was also charged with sending poisonous communications.
In a statement made by the Seattle office of the FBI, a ricin-laced letter was confirmed to have been sent to a Spokane district judge bearing a May 13 postmark. FBI officials revealed that the letter sent to president Obama had the same postmarked date and was sent from Spokane, Washington. Buquet is under suspicion of having mailed both of these poisonous letters.
The motive behind these letters is as yet unclear, and the Secret Service have been cagey in their responses, merely alluding to the tainted letters from Spokane being “similar” to those sent to Mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg and his gun control group recently. The New York ricin letters are said to have contained references to gun control in them.
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