Ricin found in Las Vegas

CNN:

Police in Las Vegas, Nevada, are investigating the discovery of what they said is the deadly poison ricin in a hotel room.

Preliminary tests show the substance is ricin, authorities said, but other tests to confirm it are under way.

Meanwhile, the reason the substance was in the room remains a mystery.

"We don't know who [the ricin] belongs to or why it would be here at this time," said Capt. Joe Lombardo of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.

The FBI said Friday morning it considers this to be a criminal case with no link to terrorism.

Authorities were called to an Extended Stay America hotel around 3 p.m. PT Thursday after a man brought a bag with a small container to the manager's office. The man said he found it while retrieving items from a hotel room.

The substance is "100 percent ricin," Lombardo said.

Three hotel employees and a fourth person who came to the room to retrieve some items went to the hospital as a precaution, Officer Ramon Dendy said. Three police officers who entered the room also are under watch at the hospital. All have been decontaminated, and none of the seven have shown symptoms of ricin poisoning, which can include anything from difficulty breathing, fever, cough, nausea and sweating to severe vomiting and dehydration.

"We did have enough ricin to be of concern," Lombardo said. "At this point, it has been contained and processed where it's not a threat to anybody." Watch police discuss the ricin discovery »

Lombardo said areas of the hotel exposed to the toxin have been decontaminated as well.

Police said they don't know how many people have stayed in the room recently.

The discovery of ricin alarms law-enforcement agencies because authorities in several countries have investigated links between suspect extremists and ricin.

Ricin is a poison that can be made from waste left over after processing castor beans, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The toxin can come in the form of a mist or pellet and can be dissolved in water or weak acid, according to the CDC. The agency also said the toxin works by getting inside the cells of a person's body and preventing the cells from making the proteins they need.

As little as 500 micrograms -- an amount the size of the head of a pin -- can kill an adult. Watch how a minute amount of ricin can kill »

Lombardo said authorities found castor beans in the room and also powder in a small vial. He said ricin is not illegal to own, but it's illegal if processed to be used for poisoning someone.

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I am sure those who have rented this room will get a good scrubbing by law enforcement. There are so few legitimate reasons for possessing ricin that the person for putting it there will probably have a pretty complete back ground check before the investigation is over.

If it was for use in a terrorist plot, it was apparently discovered before it could be used. Distributing this type of poison for use in a mass murder would not be a simple task.