Crime & Safety
Police Confirm Letter Sent to Mayor Bloomberg Contains Ricin
Civilians who came in contact with the opened letters remain asymptomatic, however, members of the NYPD Emergency Service Unit suffered minor symptoms of ricin exposure, police said.
Two poisoned-tainted letters addressed to Mayor Michael Bloomberg, one sent to New York City and the other to Washington, D.C., tested positive for ricin, a spokesman for the New York Police Department said Wednesday.
According to the police statement, one of the anonymous letters to Mayor Bloomberg was sent to the city’s mail facility on Gold Street in Manhattan and opened Friday, May 24, while the other one was sent to the director of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns in Washington, D.C. on Sunday, May 26.
Bloomberg never received the letters containing the highly toxic poison, NYPD Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne said.
Bloomberg is the co-chairman of the Washington-based anti-gun group that received the second letter, which lobbies for stricter gun control.
Both poison-laced letters “contained material that when tested locally, preliminarily indicated the presence of ricin,” Browne said.
Further tests on the letter opened in New York were preformed at the National Bioforensic Analysis Center in Maryland Wednesday also “indicated the presence of ricin.”
Although the body of the letter has not been released, the anonymous author threatened the mayor:
“The writer, in letters, threatened Mayor Bloomberg, with references to the debate on gun laws,” NYPD chief spokesman Browne explained.
Civilians in New York and in Washington who came in contact with the opened letters do not have ricin-exposure poisoning and remain asymptomatic.
However, members of the NYPD Emergency Service Unit who came in contact with the letter opened Friday at the city’s mail facility on Gold Street are being examined for “minor symptoms of ricin exposure that they experienced on Saturday but which have since abated,” Browne said.
The FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force and the NYPD Intelligence Division, which is responsible for the Mayor’s protection, are investigating the threats.
Ricin, which is derived from the castor oil plant Ricinus communis, can be fatal if swallowed or inhaled.
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