Terror fear over lost poison By Justin Davenport, Crime Correspondent, Evening Standard 14 April 2005 An al Qaeda cell in London could still have the poison ricin, police said today.
The highly toxic substance was made at a Wood Green flat and has never been found. An al Qaeda supergrass told officials that he and police killer Kamel Bourgass made two batches of ricin. It was hidden in two Nivea pots. Ricin is 6,000 times more poisonous than cyanide and an amount equivalent to a grain of salt is enough to kill an adult. Bourgass, 31, was jailed yesterday for 17 years for a plot to kill civilians with home-made poisons and explosives. The Algerian was previously jailed for life for murdering Special Branch detective Stephen Oake whom he stabbed eight times when cornered in a Manchester flat. Bourgass arrived in Britain in the back of a lorry from Calais. Today Home Secretary Charles Clarke pledged an urgent review of immigration laws after it emerged that Bourgass had twice been turned down for asylum and could have been deported as an illegal immigrant six months before he killed the officer. The information that Bourgass's cell made ricin from castor beans was given to Algerian interrogators by al Qaeda suspect Mohamed Meguerba. It was his evidence that led Scotland Yard's Anti-Terrorist Branch and MI5 to the flat in Wood Green. There officers uncovered ingredients and equipment to manufacture a range of poisons and gases. A senior anti-terrorist officer said: "Everything Meguerba told us turned out to be true. We have no reason to disbelieve him when he said he and Bourgass had made ricin. We just couldn't find it." The gang planned to put ricin on door handles of cars and shops in Holloway Road and open packs of toothbrushes in supermarkets and smear them with it. Officers also found recipes and plans for gases and explosives. There was evidence of a plot for a cyanide attack on the Tube with a pump-style spray gun. Detectives are convinced that other terror cells linked to Bourgass are still at large and may have the missing ricin. Bourgass moved between flats and in London, Manchester and Bournemouth. He was linked to suspected terror chief Abu Doha who is being held in the UK waiting extradition to the US for his alleged part in a thwarted plot to bomb Los Angeles airport. Bourgass was arrested following a raid in Crumpsall Lane, Manchester, on 14 January, 2003, when he murdered Dc Oake, nine days after police raided the Wood Green flat. Four other Algerians - Mouloud Sihali, 29, David Aissa Khalef, 33, Sidali Feddag, 20, and Mustapha Taleb, 35 - were also in the dock with Bourgass facing poison plot charges. They were alleged to have played support roles in the plot - the evidence against them consisted mainly of fingerprints linking them to items found in Wood Green. All four men were cleared. Following the not guilty verdictsprosecutors dropped plans for a third trial involving four other alleged conspirators, three Algerians and a Libyan. Bourgass is now set to launch an appeal, funded by the taxpayer, against his conviction for murdering Dc Oake. The move will send the �30 million cost of the series of trials related to the ricin plot spiralling even higher. Bourgass's lawyers expect their appeal to be heard next month. He also refuses to accept his guilt over the Wood Green ricin factory. A decision on whether to appeal against a guilty verdict for conspiring to use the poison to cause "disruption, fear and injury" is still to be considered. His lawyers argue that the jury - which convicted him of murder, two charges of attempted murder and a count of wounding with intent - should not have been told that he was linked to the ricin factory. They claim the jury was prejudiced and the convictions and life sentence should be quashed. But Nigel Sweeney, QC, prosecuting, said Bourgass had been convicted of murder on "overwhelming evidence". Crown lawyers point out that the fact Bourgass knew he had left a mountain of evidence in the Wood Green flat was the key motivation for him to launch his murderous attack in Manchester in a desperate bid to escape justice. Even if Bourgass wins his appeal against the murder conviction he may face another trial on the ricin charge. Bourgass was convicted on the lesser charge of plotting to use poison to cause "disruption, fear and injury" but the jury could not agree a verdict on a more serious count of conspiracy to murder. Mr Sweeney said the Crown would apply for a retrial on that charge should Bourgass's appeal succeed.
