Officials identify suspect accused of mailing ricin to Trump

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• A woman accused of sending President Trump a letter containing the toxic substance ricin had been identified by authorities.
• Pascale Ferrier of Quebec was arrested at the US-Canada border on Sunday and is expected to face charges in federal court by Tuesday.
• According to the CBC, Ferrier also spent time in a Texas jail last year after being arrested for using a fake driver’s license.

Officials reported that the woman accused of targeting President Trump with a letter tainted with the poison ricin has been identified as Pascale Ferrier of Quebec.

Ferrier was taken into custody by US Customs and Border Protection agents on Sunday while trying to enter a border crossing near Buffalo, New York.

She was expected to appear in federal court on Monday to face a charge of threatening the president, but her appearance was moved until Tuesday afternoon, according to the US Attorney’s Office.

According to jail records cited by CBC, Ferrier, who had been living in the US last year, was arrested in Mission, Texas, in March 2019 for using a fake driver’s license.

CBC reported that she spent 20 days in prison after pleading guilty but was later released after the charge against her was dismissed for being her first offense.

On Monday, a team of chemical and explosives experts in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police led a search of a condo in Saint-Hubert on Montreal’s South Shore related to the ricin-contaminated letters.

Police spokesman Cpl. Charles Poirier said that although authorities have to determine yet whether Ferrier actually lived there, her home is connected to the suspect.

“The RCMP is assisting the FBI in this investigation. We believe a total of six letters were sent — one to the White House and five to Texas,” Poirier told reporters.

While he could not say where in Texas the envelopes were mailed, Sheriff Eddie Guerra of the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office in Edinburg, Texas, has confirmed that he and three of his detention staff also received letters laced with ricin.

Guerra said no one was hurt but declined to comment further.

Another incident in which police received suspicious letters included the police department in Mission, Texas. Reuters reported that the officers did not open the envelope and instead turned it over to FBI custody.

Source: New York Post