Ricin Possibly Found at Las Vegas Motel

AP ^

[maquiladora]

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Preliminary tests indicate that a package found at a motel contained the toxin ricin, and seven people have been taken to hospitals, authorities said.

Police were called to the Extended Stay America Motel on Thursday and retrieved a package from the motel manager that was determined to be a chemical or controlled substance, Officer Ramone Denby said.

Two preliminary tests indicate it contained ricin, he said. Results from further tests by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and a second local lab are expected Friday, police said.

Homeland Security officials joined local police in the investigation. Officials from the FBI, Las Vegas Health District, a hazardous materials team and the National Guard were also at the scene.

Officers cordoned off the area and isolated the room where the substance was found.

Three motel employees and another person were quarantined and decontaminated at the site, then taken to hospitals for further testing, Denby said. All appeared to be in good condition, he said. Three police officers who had been exposed were also taken to hospitals.

It takes between six and eight hours for someone exposed to ricin to show signs of contamination, Denby said.

A woman who answered the phone at the motel declined comment.

Ricin is made from the waste left over from processing castor beans, and can be extremely lethal. As little as 500 micrograms, or about the size of the head of a pin, can kill a human, according to the CDC.

[penelopesire]

UPDATE:

Feds To Return Ricin Test Results
Witness: Management Quarantining 3 Rooms

POSTED: 7:08 am PST February 29, 2008
UPDATED: 7:17 am PST February 29, 2008

http://www.fox5vegas.com/news/15448068/detail.html

3 ROOMS!! Why would someone need 3 rooms to make enough to kill just one person. Sorry folks, I don’t feel any better....yet.

[dragnet2]

This would be enough to shut that entire town down...Not saying it should, only that it could cause people to avoid it like the plague. It takes about 6-8 hours to show signs of contamination.

[penelopesire]

Prayers for these people. I am not seeing this reported on Fox yet. Are you guys watching a local affiliate?

[PennsylvaniaMom]

Thx for the scary update. Any release of info as to who was occupying the rooms in question? If they are part of the civilian number quoted then that give credance to the murder plot (but you are right, why 3 rooms?) and if they hotels ‘guests’ are ‘out there somewhere’ this becomes a nightmare.

[null and void]

Herridge is good

Yes, but she does say what she is told to say.

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

One thing that makes no sense is the hotel. If I were a terrorist bent on causing panic and havoc in the most sinful city in the Great Satan, I think I’d have more sense than to target Extended Stay America.

Unless that was my base of operations... hm.

[MizSterious]

Three rooms? Ok, I’m starting to wonder if this was more along the lines of a sales pitch meeting—except it’s for something deadly.

[Kimberly GG]

Actually, I am only watching FOX. But it’s also in this article I found, as well as some information I don’t remember...

....”In 2003 an envelope containing ricin was sent to the White House but was intercepted by the Secret Service. Ricin also was found in a similar envelope at a South Carolina postal facility.

It also was detected in a Senate mailroom in 2004.”....

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080229/us_nm/usa_ricin_dc_2

[matthew fuller]

Actual Fox News, not local, in between Obama and McCain reporting.

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

"I doubt this stuff is cheap"

Actually, it is dirt-cheap. Castor plants are found at any suburban nursery, and the rest is dime-store stuff.

[Kozak]

Shades of Georgi Markov...

[penelopesire]

Good point, but didn’t one of the reports say they found stuff in one of the rooms consistent with making the stuff?

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

"Yea, I’m still not breathing as well as I was before I contacted this."

I got it too. Nasty one. I'm on day four and am feeling more human, but it's amazing how it took the wind out of me. Climbing up a half-flight of stairs exhausts me utterly. At least I've lost some weight!

[Kimberly GG]

more...

“The man who brought the substance to the manager told police he found it in a suite and it did not belong to him, police Capt. Joseph Lombardo said at a news conference Thursday night. Lombardo did not identify the man.

“Ricin has no medical uses other than cancer research,” Lombardo said. “An individual citizen other than being involved in cancer research or cancer prevention would not have any legal means or proper means of having that.”...

http://www.startribune.com/nation/16106722.html

[penelopesire]

Thanks for the link. AQ has been messing with ricin for years and it boggles the mind why the news and FBI is so dismissive of this so soon!

[MizSterious]

If a second plane hadn’t flown into the NYC buildings on 9/11, they would have immediately dismissed that one, too. Hard to do when it’s two. They also immediately declared the shoe bomber wasn’t a terrorist, too—but that one didn’t fly either.

Which is why I have this little checklist I use when viewing or listening to the reports: 1. Did they immediately declare “not terrorism” without investigating? 2. Did they refrain from using the name and/or picture of the perp(s)? 3. On a scale of 1-10, how ridiculous is the official explanation of the event?

[MizSterious]

And highschool kids gone bad. Don’t know what happened to the Britney reports today.

[penelopesire]

Good point!

Yep....probably much more to the story and by the time it comes out that the guy’s name had an ‘islamic’ ring to it or AQ literature, etc. was found in the room....no-one will be paying attention anymore.

[penelopesire]

To lighten things up a bit:

They are already betting on it in Las Vegas...LOL

“If the Vegas pundits are to be believed, money wagered on how the discovery of ricin at a Las Vegas motel will turn out is truly a gamble. Oddsmakers seem to be only confident that the perpetrator likely will have three names...”

http://www.bloggernews.net/114166

[PennsylvaniaMom]

So it was a subsequent hotel guest found the vial, probably thought it was coke (or some drug) and took it to the front desk (for the hotel to call the cops maybe). So this quest, along w/the front desk worker were in contact with the vial (before anyone knew what it was). And the housekeeping staff would have changed sheets, vacuumed, picked up towels, etc that could have been exposed them to the powder as well. So the original occupant (theorizing here) who left the vial behind is long gone.

Yikes.