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'Terror Toxin' Found in Vegas

Police hunt source of container found in hotel room
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 29, 2008 6:58 AM CST
'Terror Toxin' Found in Vegas
The Las Vegas hotel has been quarantined and decontaminated while law enforcement officers await the results of further tests on a substance believed to be the deadly toxin ricin.   ((c) uberzombie)

Las Vegas police have discovered the deadly toxin ricin at a long-stay hotel, CNN reports. It's "100% ricin," said a police official. "We did have enough ricin to be concerned. At this point, it has been contained and is not a threat to anybody." Three policemen,
three hotel workers, and another person are in a local hospital under observation for signs of ricin poisoning. So far, they're fine.

Ricin, so deadly that an amount the size of a pinhead can kill, has been linked to extremists in the past, and Homeland Security is investigating, according to a local TV station. Police said the discovery "is not a terror incident at this point," but investigators have not yet determined the source of the poison. A man retrieving items from one of the rooms discovered a container of the poison. The hotel is under quarantine and is undergoing a decontamination process. (More ricin stories.)

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