Washington State Man Accused of
Manufacturing Bioweapon Ricin

June 19, 2002

SPOKANE, Wash. — A man was arrested Wednesday for allegedly building a homemade biological weapon with a lethal toxin from the castor plant, the FBI said.


FBI agent Norm Brown said there was no known connection between the man, Kenneth Olsen, and terrorists.

"In our opinion, the public has nothing to fear from this incident," Brown said.

Olsen, 47, was allegedly making ricin, a deadly extract of castor beans. Traces of ricin have been found by U.S. troops in Afghanistan at suspected Al Qaeda biological weapons sites, Brown said.

The Spokane County Sheriff's Office began investigating Olsen last August and the FBI later became involved, Brown said. There was no sign of a bomb in the man's house and the FBI said it would not comment on any alleged motive.

Brown would not say if any ricin was found in Olsen's home or why agents believed he would be making the chemical.

Ricin is twice as deadly as cobra venom. In very small doses, it causes the human digestive tract to convulse -- hence the laxative effect of castor oil. But in larger doses, ricin causes diarrhea so severe that victims can die of shock from massive fluid and electrolyte loss.

Castor beans are grown all over the world and the toxin is relatively easy to produce. During the 1990s, U.N. weapons inspectors found ricin in Iraq, where it was being developed as part of Saddam Hussein's arsenal of weapons.

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