Federal authorities have arrested a #Utah man today after suspicious envelopes containing what officials believe to be the deadly poison #ricin were sent to #Trump and top military leaders at the #Pentagon.
A spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney for Utah said that authorities took 39-year-old #WilliamClydeAllenIII into custody in Logan, a small city in northern Utah, according to @usatoday.
A Pentagon spokeswoman says the envelopes addressed to Defense Secretary #JimMattis and the #Navy’s top officer, Adm. #JohnRichardson, contained castor seeds, which are used to make ricin. They were isolated at a mail screening facility and sent to the FBI for further testing.
No attorney was immediately listed for Allen.
As we previously reported, a Secret Service spokesman said that “the Secret Service can confirm receipt of a suspicious envelope addressed to the President on Oct. 1, 2018.”
“The envelope was not received at the White House, nor did it ever enter the White House,” the spokesman said. A source familiar with the ongoing joint federal investigation said that based on preliminary investigative activity, the White House and Pentagon letters were believed to be connected and the substance in question was a very crude castor bean concoction that authorities were not technically calling “ricin” until the chemical is further tested.
Ricin is a highly toxic compound extracted from castor beans that has been used in terror plots. If ricin is ingested, it causes nausea, vomiting and internal bleeding of the stomach and intestines, followed by failure of the liver, spleen and kidneys, and death by collapse of the circulatory system.
The FBI has issued a statement saying it has taken possession of two suspicious envelopes screened at the Pentagon mail facility and they are undergoing more testing today.
We’ll keep you posted on this one, #Roommates.
TSR STAFF: Christina C! @cdelafresh
