The deadly poisonous ricin mailed to Donald Trump

US officials have intercepted an envelope addressed to President Donald Trump that contained the deadly poison ricin.

The FBI, Secret Service and Postal Inspection Service are now trying to determine where the suspicious letter came from and who sent it.

According to The New York Times, they believe it originated in Canada and have identified a woman as a suspect.

“The FBI and our partners in the Secret Service and the US Postal Inspection Service are investigating a suspicious letter received at a US government mail facility. At this time, there is no known threat to security. public, “the FBI said in a statement.

The envelope was intercepted earlier this week at a processing facility where mail is analyzed before being sent to the White House mail room.

Other letters containing the substance were directed to federal agencies in Texas.

Ricin is a toxic compound found in castor beans. When beans are processed to make castor oil, it is part of the waste that is produced and disposed of. As a poison, it can be used in powder, mist, or granule form, or it can be dissolved in water.

“Unintentional exposure to ricin is highly unlikely, except through ingestion of castor bean,” says the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“It would take a deliberate act to make ricin and use it to poison people.”

If ingested, ricin infiltrates cells within a person’s body and prevents them from making the proteins they need, causing the cells to die.

Symptoms differ depending on how it enters the body.

Inhaling it, for example, initially causes fever, cough, nausea, chest tightness, and shortness of breath. As fluid builds up in the lungs, breathing becomes even more difficult and the person’s skin may turn blue. Eventually the result is low blood pressure and respiratory failure, leading to death.

Ingesting a significant amount of ricin causes vomiting and diarrhea, which may contain blood, followed by internal bleeding from the stomach and intestines. Then the person suffers from liver, splenic and kidney failure, which kills him.

There is no antidote. The only thing doctors can do is try to remove the substance from the body as quickly as possible.

This is not the first time ricin has been used in an apparent attempt to harm the president of the United States.

In 2018, U.S. Navy veteran William Clyde Allen was charged with allegedly attempting to send envelopes containing ground castor beans to Trump, FBI Director Christopher Wray, then-Defense Secretary James Mattis, and senior Navy officer, Admiral John Richardson.

None of the letters reached their intended goal.

In 2014, Mississippi man James Everett Dutschke was sentenced to 25 years in prison after pleading guilty to sending ricin-dusted letters to then-President Barack Obama, along with Republican Senator Roger Wicker and a judge named Sadie Holland.

The letters to Obama and Wicker were intercepted. The one addressed to Judge Holland caught up with her, but was not injured.

Also in 2014, actress Shannon Richardson was sentenced to 18 years in jail for mailing ricin envelopes to Obama and then-New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

And in 2011, four Georgia men were sentenced to prison after conspiring to spread ricin in five American cities at once: Atlanta, Jacksonville, Newark, New Orleans and Washington DC.

“Both the words and the actions of these defendants supported a dangerous idea for our democracy: that violence is justifiable when citizens are frustrated with the government,” prosecutors said at the time.