Spokane Valley Man Arrested For Allegedly Making Biological Weapon

SPOKANE - Federal agents arrested a Spokane Valley man Wednesday for investigation of manufacturing a biological weapon in his home.

Kenneth R. Olsen, 47, was making ricin, a deadly poison made from the beans of the castor plant, FBI agent Norm Brown said.

While traces of ricin have been found by U.S. troops in Afghanistan at suspected al-Qaida biological weapons sites, there is no sign that this case is connected with terrorists, Brown said.

"We have no knowledge he had any connections with outside or national organizations," Brown said.

Brown did not say if any ricin was found in the home or why agents believed Olsen would be making the chemical.

Neighbors were not considered in danger, Brown said, as agents searched the home in the suburban valley. Olsen's wife and three children were removed from the home after his arrest, Brown said.

Neighbor Dave Rausch said the family appeared normal, although they are private.

"They aren't out much," said Rausch, who lives across the street in the comfortable middle class neighborhood.

"Certainly it's scary," he said. "You wouldn't think something like this would take place in a neighborhood like this."

The Spokane County Sheriff's Office began investigating Olsen last August, before the terrorist acts of Sept. 11, Brown said. The FBI later entered the case.

There was no sign of a bomb in the house and agents do not know what Olsen intended to do with the chemical, Brown said.

Agents were also searching Olsen's vehicle and workplace on Wednesday, Brown said.

Castor beans are grown all over the world and the toxin is relatively easy to produce. It can be used to poison water or food, sprayed into the air or injected into a person. Ricin can kill within three days of exposure.

In very small doses, it causes the human digestive tract to convulse - hence the laxative effect of castor oil. But in larger doses ricin causes diarrhea so severe that victims can die of shock, as a result of massive fluid and electrolyte loss.

Originally manufactured in Russia, ricin was used by British scientists during World War II to develop a special type of bomb, but it was never used in battle.

During the 1990s, U.N. weapons inspectors found ricin in Iraq, where it was being developed as part of Saddam Hussein's arsenal of weapons.

During the 1998 trial of Thomas Leahy in Janesville, Wis., accused of manufacturing ricin, prosecutors said two-thirds of a gram of the poison could have killed 125 people if inhaled.

Courtesy of : http://waynesword.palomar.edu/ plmar99.htm

The castor bean or castor plant belongs to the Euphorbia Family (Euphorbiaceae), a diverse and economically-important family of flowering plants. Although the castor plant has a watery sap, many members of the family contain a poisonous milky sap or latex that exudes copiously from cut stems or leaves. In fact, the most important world source of natural rubber comes from several members of the Euphorbia Family, especially the para rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis). Other economically important plants include tapioca from the large storage roots of the tapioca plant (Manihot esculenta), and tung oil from the seeds of the Chinese tung tree (Aleurites fordii). Tung oil is one of the world's finest and most durable finishes for wood. Another species of Aleurites (A. molucanna), is called the candlenut tree because the oil-rich seeds were used for candles in Hawaii and other Polynesian islands.

The seed of candlenut (Aleurites molucanna) contains about 50 percent oil and burns like a candle. The ancient Polynesians brought this tree to the Hawaiian Islands where it has become naturalized. The dried nuts were cracked open and the seeds were skewered onto the midrib of a coconut frond (or slender bamboo stem) and set on fire. [Since they contain about 50 percent unsaturated oil, the seeds ignite readily.] The Polynesians used them for candles that burned for about 45 minutes. Hawaiians also extracted the oil for many other uses: to shine and waterproof wooden bowls, to mix with charcoal to make black canoe paint, to burn as torches, and to burn in stone lamps for light.

The candlenut is also known as the kukui-nut in Hawaii, and the large seeds are polished and strung into beautiful necklaces and bracelets. In fact, this tree has so many uses that it is the national tree of Hawaii. Throughout the islands the light green (silvery-gray) foliage decorates lush canyons and valleys. The light-colored foliage is easy to spot from the numerous vistas on these lovely islands.

The fruit and seeds of candlenut (Aleurites molucanna). In the Hawaiian Islands, the large seeds are polished and made into beautiful kukui-nut necklaces and bracelets. The shiny black or dark brown seeds resemble polished gemstones.

There are many native members of the Euphorbia Family represented in the southwestern desert region of the United States and Mexico, including a shrub that produces the famous Mexican jumping bean (Sebastiana pavoniana) and the Arizona jumping bean (Sapium biloculare). Like the castor bean, the Mexican jumping bean also has capsules composed of 3 carpels, except some of these are occupied by a robust moth larva rather than a seed. A related roadside plant of southern Arizona and Mexico (Cnidoscolus angustidens) superficially resembles a young castor plant, except it is covered with very painful, stinging hairs (trichomes). Its appropriate name of male mujer or "bad woman" is quickly realized if one makes the mistake of touching it.

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