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.

[CindyDawg]

Over here, keyword guy.

[From One - Many]

What has been done to the Citizens by our politicians, by leaving the Citizens venerable to attack, can be summed up in two words....Mission Accomplished.

[penelopesire]

Agree. This is very disconcerting.

From Hot Air comments section:

“I heard on Fox earlier that the hotel where this was found is located close to a water treatment plant.”

Afterimage on February 29, 2008 at 9:08 AM

How much would they have to have made to effect a local water supply plant? Is this even plausible? I want to know the names of the folks staying in that hotel room before it was found and how long they stayed there!

[jmcenanly]

When I heard about the ricin, the first thing that came to mind was the murder of Georgi Markov, in 1978. He had become an embarrassment to the Bulgarian governemntwith his In Absentia reports on radio free Europe. Agents of the Bulgarian secret police assisted by the KGB had previously made two failed attempts to kill Markov before a third attempt succeeded. On September 7, 1978 (the birthday of Todor Zhivkov), Markov walked across Waterloo Bridge spanning the River Thames, and was waiting at a bus stop on the other side, when he was jabbed in the thigh by a man holding an umbrella. The man apologized and walked away. Markov would later tell doctors that the man had spoken in a foreign accent. The event is recalled as the Umbrella Murder. Markov recalled feeling a stinging pain from where he had been hit by the umbrella tip. When he arrived at work at the BBC World Service offices he noticed a small red pimple had formed and the pain from being jabbed had not gone away. He told at least one of his colleagues at the BBC about this incident. That evening he developed a high fever and was admitted to hospital where he died three days later

[MizSterious]

Water treatment plant—there’s a chilling thought. Maybe one of the FR scientists/chemists can comment on the possibility of that scenario?

[null and void]

How much would they have to have made to effect a local water supply plant?

A LOT.

Is this even plausible?

Yes, barely. Any toxin in the water system would be heavily diluted. It would be very difficult to get enough poison into a modern water system to pose a real risk.

OTOH, the point isn't always death and injury, sometimes it's just fear...

[SlapHappyPappy]

Of course not.

Putin has people to do his poisoning for him.

[graceisfree]

“Onboard the SW Airlines flight to Chicago we sat behind a lone muslim man who was coughing and hacking big time. He ignored the flight attendents’ request to turn off his cell phone and buckle his seat belt for takeoff.”

—what happened next? that couldn’t have been the end of it...surely someone forced him to comply?

what I hope happened next: Brave person stands up and says, “Listen-up, the lady isn’t blowing smoke, she requested, I AM TELLING YOU, TURN OFF your cell phone, AND buckle your freakin seat belt!” As other brave soul’s stand up to make sure unruly man complies with the authority of the flight attendant.

[penelopesire]

Thanks for the info. Here is a clip from CNN ‘Doctor Gupta’ that gives a little info.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/02/29/ricin.hotel/index.html?section=cnn_latest#cnnSTCVideo

[girlangler]

Water treatment plant — Yikes.

Sure would like to know who stayed in that motel room.

[mewzilla]

'"Extended stay America" suite'?

Would be like using American Airlines on 9-11, wouldn't it?

[spokeshave]

"Water treatment plant — Yikes.

Sure would like to know who stayed in that motel room.

Sounds like someone buying a large quantity of ricin at the hotel....and one of the "sample" bottles got left behind.

[prophetic]

Who wants to bet me that the previous occupants of the room had Russian connections?

[Rick.Donaldson]

Just reading and hearing fox, I understand that the material was found in a “vial”. Could be a test tube or pill bottle. That would mean “no it wasn’t aerosolized”. Just in a powder form.

I’m usually one that will quickly throw down a “Pay attention this might be terrorism flag”.

In this case, there is nothing to say IT IS NOT TERRORISM.

(Yeah, yeah, can’t prove a negative, blah blah...)

So.. what I’m saying here is that while people have pretty flowers which grown caster beans etc, beans that have been processed are not done so for the heck of it.

[Cold Heart]

I think you got it, they want to down play the event. They don’t want to alarm people, MT hotels & casinos means no $.
Leaving ricin and maybe a note was possibly the whole terrorist act in itself.

Nevada also just had the largest medical warning. Possible 40,000 people exposed to HIV & hepatitis at some aboslutely stupid medical center where they reused syringes & had insufficient cleaning of equipment.

[penelopesire]

Thanks for the expert info. I guess we don’t need to get out our plastic sheeting and duct tape just yet..LOL

Half kidding...we still have that stuff and will not being throwing it away anytime soon!

[MizSterious]

I’m “waiting and watching” personally...

That said, there have been several incidents involving ricin documented on the old CourtTV (now TruTV) show, Forensic Files, where someone sought to avoid paying for a divorce or dissolving a business partnership by using ricin. This might have actually been something like that, rather than terrorism.

[DBrow]

“There’s NO use for ricin other than killing people.”

Ricin is used in several types of bioresearch, to inhibit certain protein synthesis pathways, and for other ways to control what goes on in cells. In particular it can be used to inactivate the 60 S ribosomal subunit of eukaryotic cells.

It’s available as a pure chemical derived from castor bean, from many biotech suppliers, as are subchains and derivatives of ricin, all of which start with castor, since a full synthetic synthesis is more costly.

A package of ricin in a motel room, though? I don’t have all the facts but somehow I doubt there was a strong interest in modulating mitochondrial peptide functions in vitro.

[penelopesire]

“Who wants to bet me that the previous occupants of the room had Russian connections?”

Who wants to bet it was AQ or inspired by AQ?

(Blast from the past)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A2159-2004May4

[MizSterious]

What continues to make me somewhat uneasy is the really stupid explanations of why it might have been there. Medical research? In a motel room? All they need now is that guy from SNL snarking around saying, “Yeahhh....that’s the ticket....medical research....”