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Saturday, March 01, 2008
Toxin Mystery at Las Vegas Motel Deepens
Mar 1, 12:07 PM EST
Toxin Mystery at Las Vegas Motel Deepens
By KEN RITTER, Associated Press
LAS VEGAS, NV: As police tried to piece together how a rare, deadly poison ended up in a motel for transients, the 57-year-old man who could hold the key lay unconscious in a hospital. Adding to the mystery, police said firearms and an "anarchist type textbook" were found in the same room where the ricin was discovered two days later.
Capt. Joseph Lombardo said at a news conference late Friday that the book was tabbed at a spot with information about ricin. Police found the firearms and books on Tuesday after a manager at the Extended Stay America motel called police upon discovering weapons, he said, without elaborating.
After authorities seized the book and weapons, tests for ricin were conducted but came back negative, Lombardo said.
He said a 53-year-old friend or relative of the sick man contacted motel management on Feb. 22 to inform them about pets in the room.
Earlier Friday, police Deputy Chief Kathy Suey said the friend or relative found two vials of ricin on Thursday after going to the motel to retrieve the hospitalized man's belongings. Authorities on Friday confirmed that the vials contained ricin.
It was unclear how long the vials were in the unoccupied motel room, and whether they might have been overlooked when ricin tests were conducted on Tuesday. Lombardo did not address such questions during the brief news conference.
"The only positive tests (were) on the powder in question" in the vials, he said. Authorities said there was no apparent link to terrorist activity, and no indication of any spread of the deadly substance beyond the vials.
-- Source/continues: WBBM, 780 Radio