Richin fiend targeted Pentagon

Letters addressed to brass intercepted

The Pentagon received two envelopes in the mail this week — addressed to Secretary of Defense James Mattis (top) and Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson — both of which tested positive for ricin Tuesday, according to defense officials.

The packages were delivered Monday to an off-site mail facility, officials said.

They were intercepted before making it to the iconic headquarters of the Defense Department.

They triggered alarms as they underwent a security screening at, according to Military Times.

A defense official told CNN the intended recipients were Mattis and Richardson.

“On Monday, the Pentagon Force Protection Agency detected a suspicious substance during mail screening at the Pentagon’s remote screening facility,” Army Col. Rob Manning, a Pentagon spokesman, said in a statement.

“The envelopes were taken by the FBI this morning for further analysis,” he said, adding that all US Postal Service mail received at the screening facility Monday was under quarantine and posed no threat to Pentagon personnel.

Ricin, a highly toxic compound extracted from castor beans, has been used in terror plots and is lethal in tiny doses if swallowed, inhaled or injected. It is 6,000 times more potent than cyanide.

If ingested, it causes nausea, vomiting and internal bleeding of the stomach and intestines, followed by failure of the liver, spleen and kidneys, and death by collapse of the circulatory system.

Ricin-laced letters have been sent to politicians in the past, including then-President Barack Obama and then-Mayor Mike Bloomberg in May 2013.

The pair received packages from former actress Shannon Guess Richardson, who had minor roles on television in “The Walking Dead” and the movie ‘The Blind Side.”

She had been trying to frame her estranged husband for the crime — and used lye, castor beans syringes and needles to cook up the deadly toxin, which she bought in his name.

Richardson eventually confessed and pleaded guilty to developing, producing, possessing and transferring a toxin for use as a weapon in December 2013. She was later sentenced to 18 years in prison.