Free Republic

AMSTERDAM — Breda Court was sealed off on Friday and about 400 people ordered to remain inside the building after a suspect "anthrax" letter addressed to a judge was discovered in the postal room. The letter was written in English and contained a suspect powder. Alarmed authorities prevented anyone from entering the building for several hours and urged the 400 people trapped inside to restrict their movements. Police gave the all clear at about 2pm, but anyone who possibly came in contact with the letter were ordered to shower before leaving the building, Dutch associated press ANP reported. A police...

BY THE OREGONIAN/OREGONLIVE (Compiled from news accounts, court records, public notices) Last week's arrest of a long-sought accused eco-saboteur pushed the spotlight back on a tight-knit cell of radical environmentalists responsible for a $48 million run of firebombings and other crimes across the West in the 1990s and early 2000s. Six men and five women prosecuted in Oregon received sentences ranging from three years to 13 years. They were arrested starting in 2005 in what the FBI called "Operation Backfire," a task force that tracked down the suspects with the help of an informant deep within the underground group....

A dual citizen of France and Canada pleaded guilty on Wednesday to sending letters containing homemade ricin to then-President Donald Trump at the White House and eight Texas law enforcement officials. Pascale Cecile Veronique Ferrier sent threatening letters containing the poison in September 2020, according to the plea agreement filed in a Washington, DC, federal court. According to the agreement, Ferrier made ricin at her home in Quebec, Canada, and put the poison in letters addressed to Trump and the Texas officials.... ...After sending the letters from Canada, Ferrier was arrested when trying to cross the border into the US...

The FBI said Monday that no one has been arrested after last week’s discovery of a pair of letters containing the deadly poison ricin in Spokane, but the agency remained tight-lipped about the investigation and a weekend raid at a downtown apartment building. … The letters were postmarked last Tuesday in Spokane and addressed to the downtown post office and the adjacent federal building. They were intercepted by the Postal Service, and no one was injured. … Witnesses have said a man was escorted from the building by law enforcement officers Saturday morning. Sandalo Dietrich declined to say if anyone...

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.

A Quebec woman was sentenced to 22 years in prison Thursday after sending letters containing ricin to former President Trump in 2020. Pascale Ferrier, 55, pleaded guilty in January to making ricin in her home and mailing Trump and eight Texas law enforcement officials threatening letters laced with it. The toxin is made from waste material left over from processing castor beans. She faced a charge of prohibitions with respect to biological weapons in Washington, D.C., and eight counts of the same charge in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. She agreed to have the Texas...

Defendant Also Mailed Threatening Ricin Letters to Texas Law Enforcement OfficialsPascale Cecile Veronique Ferrier, 55, a dual citizen of Canada and France, was sentenced today to 262 months in prison, followed by a lifetime of supervised release, for sending threatening letters, containing homemade ricin (a toxin), in September 2020, to then-President Donald J. Trump at the White House, and to eight Texas State law enforcement officials.Ferrier pleaded guilty on Jan. 25 to prohibitions with respect to biological weapons in two separate criminal cases. One case was brought in the District of Columbia, and the other was brought in the Southern...