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Friday , February 29, 2008  LAS VEGAS — Detectives may be looking at the discovery of a poison-infested package at a Las Vegas motel as a murder plot, FOX News has learned.
The toxin known as ricin turned up on a parcel found at the Extended Stay America Motel, leaving seven people sick and in the hospital. Local coverage and video from FOX 5 Las Vegas Law enforcement officials told FOX that the Las Vegas Police Department is leading the probe and the investigation appears to be focusing on a possible murder plot of some kind. One of those exposed to the ricin is clinging to life and may be in a coma, the sources told FOX. Federal and local officials also said that there doesn't appear to be a terrorism connection in the case, but identifying the sender and receiver of the package had taken top priority. "This is not a terror incident at this point," said police Captain Joseph Lombardo. Authorities were called to the Vegas motel on Thursday and retrieved a package from the motel manager that was determined to be a chemical or controlled substance, Officer Ramone Denby said. Two preliminary tests indicate it contained ricin, he said. Results from further tests by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and a second local lab are expected Friday, according to investigators. "Ricin has no medical uses other than cancer research," Lombardo said at a news conference Thursday night. "An individual citizen other than being involved in cancer research or cancer prevention would not have any legal means or proper means of having that." An expert in ricin told FOX News that the field tests done at the hotel were considered primitive, and the forthcoming CDC results would be the most reliable. Those could be completed within as little as 24 hours. Police cordoned off the area and isolated the room where the substance was found. Three motel employees and another person were quarantined and decontaminated at the site, then taken to hospitals for further testing, Denby said. All appeared to be in good condition, he said. Three police officers who had been exposed were also taken to hospitals. It takes between six and eight hours for someone exposed to ricin to show signs of contamination, Denby said. Homeland Security officials joined local police in the investigation. Officials from the FBI, Las Vegas Health District, a hazardous materials team and the National Guard were also at the scene. A woman who answered the phone at the motel declined comment. Ricin is made from the waste left over from processing castor beans, and can be extremely lethal. As little as 500 micrograms, or about the size of the head of a pin, can kill a human, according to the CDC. FOX News' Ian McCaleb, Catherine Herridge and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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