Canadian woman suspected of mailing ricin-laced letter to Donald Trump arrested crossing into U.S.
A suspect has been arrested in the case where a woman allegedly mailed Donald Trump a letter laced with the poison ricin. Officials believe they’ve connected the same woman to at least six additional poisoned letters. The ricin mailing woman was arrested on Sunday when crossing the U.S. / Canadian border while trying to get into Buffalo, New York, when traveling from Canada.
When U.S. officials made the arrest, they discovered she was also carrying a gun.
The suspect was identified earlier this morning as Pascale Ferrier, a 53-year-old resident of Quebec. CTVNews reported that Ferrier was originally a French citizen who became a Canadian citizen in 2015. She is reportedly a computer programmer who spent three months in a Texas prison after being found guilty of unlawful possession of a weapon and using a fake Texas driver’s license back in 2019.
The Texas Police Department that laid those charges was also sent a letter with ricin last week. ~ CTVNews
Ferrier is scheduled to appear in court today to face federal charges. Yesterday, officials with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) searched an apartment in Montreal associated with Ferrier. Aside from the letter sent to Trump, the same woman is suspected of mailing additional ricin-tainted letters to law enforcement agencies in the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas.
“We believe a total of six letters were sent, one to the White House and five to Texas,” RCMP officer Charles Poirier told the Guardian outside the building. “We can’t confirm that she lived in [the apartment], but it is connected to her.” ~ People
Art Flores, a spokesperson for a police department headquartered in Mission, Texas, said that one of those poison letters found its way to the police in Mission Police Department. He refused to make any additional statements except to say that no-one was hurt and that the ricin-laced envelope was in the custody of law enforcement, according to CBS News.
Ricin is a highly toxic compound extracted from castor beans that has been used in terror plots. It can be used in powder, pellet, mist or acid form. If 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. ~ CNN
The amount of ricin approximately the size of a pin’s head is enough to kill an adult. According to the CDC, ricin exposure can be deadly within 36 to 72 hours – and there is no known antidote.
For more on the story, see the video accompanying this article.
(Cover Image, Quebec resident Pascale Ferrier, Booking Photo)
~ Posted by Richard Webster, Ace News Today / Connect with Richard on Facebook and Twitter
