[ad_1]
A woman suspected of sending a letter to President Donald Trump containing the deadly poison ricin has been arrested, according to US law enforcement officials.
Authorities say the woman was detained by US Customs and Border Protection agents as she tried to enter the United States from Canada at a border crossing in New York state on Sunday.
US prosecutors are expected to press charges against her. Her name was not immediately released.
The letter was intercepted before reaching the White House, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said Saturday.
The letter was intercepted before it reached Donald Trump
It was opened in an off-site government facility where mail bound for the president Triumph and other White House personnel are examined.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said the letter appeared to have originated in Canada.
Ricin is a poison that occurs naturally in castor beans and can be deadly to humans; Exposure to as little as the head of a pin can kill an adult within 36 to 72 hours.
Similar envelopes have been sent to the White House on several previous occasions.
A Navy veteran was arrested in 2018 and confessed to mailing envelopes to Trump and members of his administration that contained the substance from which ricin is derived.
Ricin previously addressed the White House during the presidency of Barack Obama.
Authorities said the man, William Clyde Allen III, sent the envelopes with ground castor beans to the president and several other senior officials, including FBI Director Christopher Wray.
Others targeted were then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, then-CIA Director Gina Haspel, Admiral John Richardson, who at the time was the senior Navy officer, and then-Secretary of the Air Force Heather Wilson.
Four years earlier, a Mississippi man was sentenced to 25 years in prison after sending ricin-dusted letters to then-President Barack Obama and other officials.
