January 7, 2003 6 Arrested in Britain After Finding Poison By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Filed at 1:29 p.m. ET
LONDON (AP) -- Anti-terrorist police said Tuesday they arrested six men of North African origin after finding traces of ricin, a deadly poison that in the past has been linked to al-Qaida and Iraq, in a London property. Scotland Yard's anti-terrorism branch carried out the arrests Sunday in north and east London, working from intelligence information received by police. Ricin -- one of the world's deadliest toxins, twice as deadly as cobra venom -- is derived from the castor bean plant and is relatively easily made. It may be inhaled, ingested or injected. There is no known antidote. None of those arrested has been charged, and Scotland Yard refused to say what country or countries the suspects were from. Prime Minister Tony Blair said the arrests highlighted the danger posed by terrorists. ``This danger is present and real and with us now, and its potential is huge,'' he told a gathering of British ambassadors in London. His spokesman said the ricin was a ``small amount'' and that there was no intelligence on how it was to be used. Police said traces of the poison were found on equipment and materials found at a property in the London neighborhood of Wood Green, where one of the men was arrested. A woman who was also arrested had been released, a police statement said. The material was tested at the British government's chemical weapons research facility, anti-terrorist branch chief David Veness and Deputy Chief Medical Officer Pat Troop said in a statement. Police did not say what the material was. Scotland Yard said it had worked with health officials throughout the investigation. Public health workers have been told to look out for symptoms of ricin exposure, including fever, stomach ache, diarrhea and vomiting. Blair's government has issued several general warnings that Britain could be the target of terrorist attacks. Blair told Parliament last month that ``barely a day goes by'' without some new piece of intelligence warning of threats to British interests. In November the government issued -- and then hurriedly withdrew -- a statement warning that al-Qaida might be prepared to use a radiological device known as a ``dirty bomb,'' or some kind of poison gas. It was replaced with a more general warning of terrorist threats. In very small doses, ricin 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. Castor beans are grown all over the world. Andy Oppenheimer, a chemical and biological weapons expert at Jane's Terrorism and Security Monitor, said that because ricin was relatively easy to produce, its presence in London did not necessarily indicate a connection to Iraq or al-Qaida. Oppenheimer said terrorists could kill large numbers of people with ricin if they managed to put it into aerosol, a job that was tricky but not impossible. A crowded, enclosed environment like the London Underground would probably be the most appealing target, he added. He said only minute amounts were needed to kill a person. Traces of ricin have been found by U.S. troops in Afghanistan at suspected al-Qaida biological weapons sites. U.S. officials said in August that the Islamic extremist group Ansar al-Islam tested ricin along with other chemical and biological agents in northern Iraq, territory controlled by Kurds, not Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. The group is allegedly linked to al-Qaida. U.N. weapons inspectors who left Iraq in 1998 listed ricin among the poisons they believed Saddam produced and later failed to account for. And some amateur scientists have produced the poison at home. In Janesville, Wis., Thomas Leahy was accused of manufacturing ricin, and prosecutors said the small amount he possessed was enough to kill more than 100 people. He pleaded guilty to possessing the poison. In Spokane, Wash., the FBI arrested Kenneth Olsen last summer for allegedly manufacturing the poison, a charge he denies.
