Utah man arrested in mailing of suspicious items to officials

WASHINGTON — The FBI on Wednesday arrested a Utah man suspected in an episode that federal officials initially believed was a mail attack using ricin, a deadly poison, but which they later determined involved sending castor seeds to senior government officials.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney in Utah said federal prosecutors authorized a probable cause arrest of William Clyde Allen III, 39, and plan to file formal charges against him in federal court on Friday.

Capt. Tyson Budge, spokesman for the police department in the town of Logan, Utah, said federal agents took the man into custody at his home on Wednesday afternoon.

The arrest occurred a day after the Pentagon and Secret Service disclosed that a series of suspicious packages were detected earlier in the week that initial tests suggested contained ricin. They included two envelopes addressed to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Adm. John Richardson, chief of U.S. Naval Operations, and another intended for President Donald Trump.

Dana White, chief Pentagon spokesperson, said the substance detected on the two envelopes addressed for Mattis and Richardson, which were found at a Defense Department facility in northern Virginia, contained the seeds, which are used to make ricin, but which themselves are not dangerous.

“The FBI is still investigating,” she said in a statement.

Budge said Allen has lived in Logan since at least 2016.

Ricin, typically used as a poison in mist, pellet or powder form, is created as a byproduct of processing castor beans.