Eight years for ‘Breaking Bad’ ricin plotter
IT geek ordered enough to kill 1,400
A COMPUTER geek who used a toy Lamborghini to try to smuggle enough deadly ricin into the UK to kill 1,400 people was jailed for eight years yesterday. Mohammed Ammer Ali, who was inspired by the US television show Breaking Bad, thought he was paying an American trader on the ‘dark web’ to hide five vials of the poison in the children’s car. The I T programmer had planned to test the poison on a small animal such as a pet rabbit. But in fact he had stumbled into a trap set by FBI agents who replaced the white powder with an inert substance and tipped off British police.
Ali, 31, was convicted of attempting to buy a chemical weapon following a trial last month. Yesterday relatives wailed in the public gallery at the Old Bailey after a judge insisted possession of such a weapon was far more serious than possession of a gun and he ought to be made an example of.
Mr Justice Saunders told the married father of two: ‘This is the sort of case where a deterrent sentence has to be passed. Everyone needs to know that the possession of a chemical weapon is extremely serious and long prison sentences will follow.’
The judge commended l aw enforcement agencies in Britain and the US for ensuring that ricin – known as the perfect poison for leaving no trace – did not get into Ali’s possession.
Ali was arrested in February by counter terror police, but officers could find no links to extremist organisations. They believe he tried to buy the chemical ‘because he could’.
Although the judge accepted that Ali, who has mild Asperger’s, a form of autism, had no intention of disposing of the substance immediately but intended to keep it, he said it still posed a real risk. ‘At some stage in the future he might decide to experiment with it or it might fall into the wrong hands,’ the judge added.
Ricin is one of the most lethal poisons, with a dose the size of a
‘The perfect poison’
few grains of salt enough to kill an adult. It is 6,000 times more deadly than cyanide.
Ali was caught while surfing the ‘dark web’, a part of the internet which can only be accessed with specialist software, under his codename ‘weirdo0000’. It is popular with criminals who use its anonymous and sometimes untraceable forums to trade drugs, weapons and images of child abuse.
The court heard that the university dropout approached an undercover agent called ‘Peter’, promising to buy in bulk and be a ‘good repeat customer’.
In a series of encrypted messages, the agent agreed to supply 500mg of the chemical hidden in the battery compartment of the car for $500, about £320.
In February a package was delivered to Ali’s Liverpool home by FedEx couriers and police swooped to arrest him. They discovered a note on his computer in which Ali wrote ‘get a pet to murder’ and ‘paid ricin guy’.
Ali claimed he tried to buy the poison as an experiment because he wanted to test the boundaries of the ‘dark web’ and had ‘ricin on the mind’ after watching Breaking Bad.
The main character Walter White manufactures ricin from castor beans and uses it to eliminate an adversary.
After the hearing Detective Chief Superintendent Tony Mole, of the North West Counter Terrorism Unit, said police could only speculate on what Ali wanted the ricin for.
He added: ‘Thanks to the vigilance of officers from a number of law enforcement agencies, we were able to intervene before this man got hold of such a deadly substance from a genuine seller.’