Police in Germany searched the home of a 16 -year -old teenager in the eastern state of possession of the highly toxic war agar on Thursday.
The adolescent would have made and stored several bottles of a mixture of cast plant toxins and aconitine in a laboratory specially equipped in the attic of his family’s house.
What do we know about the ricin raid?
The office of the Criminal Investigation of the Saxony State and the Dresden Prosecutor’s Office said that the procedure was in the process of alleged offense under the War Weapons Act.
Investigations to date have not revealed any indication of the objective for which the suspect made substances.
The police said that they were scrutinizing the “specially designed laboratory”, seeking to grasp all toxic substances and other evidence “.
Experts from the German disease fighting agency, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), were also on the scene.
The emergency services have completed a large area of the premises and all the access roads have also been closed. The 16 -year -old was released.
The prosecutors said that no arrest warrant had been issued and that the boy currently had no criminal record. As a result, there was no reason requiring his detention, they said. It was not clear if the teenager’s parents knew his alleged activities.
In January 2023, the authorities arrested a 32-year-old Iranian and his 25-year-old brother in the western state of the North Westphalia Rhineland suspected of having planned a chemical attack motivated by Islamist using ricin and cyanide.
In 2018, an Islamist couple in Germany was convicted of having plotted a ricin bomb using castor seeds, explosives and ball bearings.
How dangerous is it?
Ricin is one of the most deadly known to science toxins known to science and is classified as a biological weapon under the Act respecting the weapons of war of Germany.
The substance is extracted from the seeds of the castor oil plant. Although all parts of the plant are toxic, this is particularly true for bean -shaped seeds.
It is fatal in tiny doses when swallowed, inhaled or injected, being 6,000 times more powerful than cyanide, without known antidote.
Aconitine is among the fastest and most deadly natural poisons affecting the heart. The alkaloid is contained in the aconite plant, also known as Wolf’s Bane, and Monkhood.
According to the RKI, around 2 to 6 milligrams of pure aconitine can be fatal for adults.
Edited by Zac Crellin
