SPOKANE — A 37-year-old man arrested Wednesday has pleaded not guilty to mailing a threatening communication, after a pair of letters containing the deadly poison ricin were discovered in Washington state last week.
Matthew Ryan Buquet appeared in federal court in Spokane after FBI agents arrested him Wednesday afternoon.
The letters were postmarked in Spokane and addressed to the downtown post office and the adjacent federal building. They were intercepted by the Postal Service, and no one was injured.
The Postal Service has said the ricin was in a crude form that did not pose a health risk to its employees.
Investigators in hazardous materials suits spent most of Saturday executing a search warrant at a three-story apartment building downtown. Witnesses reported that agents escorted a man from the building.
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