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Envelopes sent to Mattis, Navy chief test positive for ricin

Two envelopes addressed to Secretary of Defense James Mattis and Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson have initially tested positive for the deadly poison ricin at the Pentagon’s mail facility, according to a report.

The packages, which were delivered Monday, were intercepted before making it into the sprawling headquarters of the Defense Department in Virginia near Washington, DC, spokesman Chris Sherwood said Tuesday.

They triggered alarms as they underwent a security screening at the off-site mail processing center, according to the Military Times.

A defense official told CNN that the intended recipients were Mattis and Richardson.

“On Monday, the Pentagon Force Protection Agency detected a suspicious substance during mail screening at the Pentagon’s remote screening facility,” Army Col. Rob Manning, a Pentagon spokesman, said in a statement.





“The envelopes were taken by the FBI this morning for further analysis,” he said, adding that all US Postal Service mail received at the screening facility Monday was under quarantine and posed no threat to Pentagon personnel.

The FBI said in a statement that as the envelopes are undergoing further testing, “we will have no further comment.”

Ricin, a highly toxic compound extracted from castor beans, has been used in terror plots and is lethal in tiny doses if swallowed, inhaled or injected. It is 6,000 times more potent than cyanide.

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.





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