Police have a suspect in mind they believe is responsible for mailing a deadly letter laced with poison to Sen. Roger Wicker, it was revealed today.
A suspicious letter that tested positive for ricin, a substance that is fatal when ingested, was sent yesterday to Mississippi Republican’s offices in Washington. News of the package sent shock waves throughout Capitol Hill.
The FBI and Capitol Police have not yet released the identity of the suspect to the public, but Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Missouri said today that the person in question ‘writes a lot of letters to (Congress) members.’
Both authorities declined to comment further on the situation.
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Intercepted: A letter laced with a poisonous substance was sent to to Sen. Roger Wicker, a Republican from Mississippi, on Tuesday
Investigation: A U.S. Capitol Police hazmat vehicle is parked at a mail processing facility for congressional mail in Prince George's County Tuesday night where the letter addressed to Wicker tested positive for ricin
In mind: FBI and Capitol Hill police say that they have a suspect in mind, but have declined to comment further on the open investigation
The discovery of the ricin-laced letter put politicians on edge, as its delivery came only a day after Monday’s deadly bombings at the Boston Marathon.
The substance on the letter tested positive for ricin, a highly toxic poison that is deadly to humans if ingested
Since September 11, 2001, the U.S. Post Office has offered more drastic screening of letters, following the mailings of several packages laced with another deadly toxin – anthrax.
Those poison-laced letters appeared in five post offices, as well as news rooms and other senators’ offices in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. The FBI attributed the attacks to a government scientist who committed suicide in 2008. In total, the anthrax killed five people and infected 17 others.
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The envelope, addressed to Wicker's Capitol Hill office, was intercepted at a mail facility in Prince George's County, Maryland and has been sent to a lab for additional testing, an FBI spokesperson said.
The letter was believed to originate in Memphis, Tennessee, and it did not have a return address, according to initial reports.
The letter tested positive for ricin three times, but due to the frequency of false-positives on ricin tests, it will undergo further testing in a Baltimore lab.
Wicker, 61, the junior senator from Mississippi, has been assigned a protective detail, law enforcement sources told CNN.
'This matter is part of an ongoing investigation by the United States Capitol Police and FBI,' Wicker said in a statement released late Tuesday. 'I want to thank our law enforcement officials for their hard work and diligence in keeping those of us who work in the Capitol complex safe.'
The incident comes as the nation is on high alert following twin bombings in Boston on Monday, which killed three people and injured more than 180.
Poisonous: This substance is believed to be ricin in the form of powder
How it's made: Ricin is made from the castor bean plant (left). It can be made from the waste material left over from processing castor beans (right)
Officials haven't said whether they suspect any link between the bombings and the ricin letter.
In response to the ricin letter, the House and Senate have temporarily closed their post offices. Just a few salt-sized grains of ricin, which is naturally found in castor beans, can be fatal to humans.
Ricin last caused a scare at the Capitol in 2004, when it was detected on a letter sent to then-Majority Leader Bill Frist, a Republican from Tennessee.
Authorities haven't speculated as to why Wicker may have been targeted for the attack, though he is a fierce critic of tighter gun controls, which has been a lightning-rod issue in the Senate over the past couple weeks.
Wicker has promised his constituents that he will block any bill that could tighten firearm regulations.
'I have an A+ rating from the NRA and have consistently worked to protect Second Amendment rights,' Wicker wrote on his Facebook page last week. 'I have never voted for gun control and will not do so... I will filibuster passage of a final bill if it contains gun restrictions or a weapons ban.'
Wicker has served in the Senate since 2007. Before that, he served in the U.S. House of Representatives for 12 years.