The FBI has arrested a former Navy sailor after a ricin scare when letters laced with a mysterious substance were sent to the Pentagon and other key locations around the nation’s capital Tuesday.
William Clyde Allen of Logan, Utah, is in custody under federal prosecutors’ authorization, ABC News reported Wednesday. A complaint against Allen could be filed in federal court as early as Friday, officials told ABC News.
The letters were addressed to President Donald Trump, Secretary of Defense James Mattis, Chief of Naval Operations Admiral John Richardson and GOP Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s Houston campaign office. The substance on the letters was determined to be castor seeds, from which the toxic protein ricin is made, reported ABC News.
Allen, 39, was a fireman apprentice in the Navy from 1998 to 2002, reported ABC News. (RELATED: Hazmat Team Sent To Ted Cruz Campaign Office In Houston: Report)
A return address on one of the four envelopes was a lead in the FBI investigation into the scare, a “U.S. official familiar with the investigation” told ABC News.
The envelopes addressed to Mattis and Richardson never left a mail screening facility separate from the Pentagon, reported USA Today.
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