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Truckers’ Files Subpoenaed in Ricin Probe
A federal grand jury has subpoenaed the files of nine truck drivers employed by a trucking company in Little Rock, Ark., seeking evidence in an October ricin scare at a South Carolina postal facility, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, Oct. 24, 2003). A subpoena sent in late November sought the records from Mail Contractors of America to determine how a vial of ricin reached the Greenville, S.C. center. Authorities believe that someone mailed a package with a vial of the poison enclosed on Oct. 14 or 15. Mail Contractors had the contract for delivering third class mail to the facility at the time. In a subsequent incident, a letter addressed to the White House also contained a vial of the toxin (see GSN, Feb. 4). Both the Greenville and White House mailings were sent by someone using the name “Fallen Angel,” who in a letter threatened to use ricin unless changes were made to federal rules on limits over truckers’ driving hours. No letter has been discovered in a third ricin incident, in which a small amount of the powder was found on Feb. 2 in the Dirksen Senate office mailroom used by the staff of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.). The FBI is offering a $100,000 reward and has appealed for assistance on late-night trucker radio shows (Marilyn Thompson, Washington Post, Feb 23).
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