Canadian Woman Suspected of Sending Ricin to Trump to Appear in Court

The woman accused of sending a ricin-laced letter to U.S. President Donald Trump will appear in court Tuesday, according to law enforcement officials. Pascale Ferrier, 53, of Quebec was arrested by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials Sunday at the Peace Bridge, which connects Buffalo, a city in New York state, with Fort Erie in Ontario, Canada, according to U.S. court documents. The letter addressed to Trump was intercepted at a facility that processes mail addressed to the president. It tested positive for ricin, the AP reported. FILE – Pascale Ferrier appears in a jail booking photograph taken after her arrest by the Mission Police Department in Mission, Texas, March 13, 2019.Ferrier is also suspected of sending ricin-filled letters to police in Texas, according to a spokesman for the Royal Canadian Mount Police. “We believe a total of six letters were sent: one to the White House and five to Texas,” Cpl. Charles Poirier, of the RCMP’s Quebec division, told CBC News. This was not her first brush with authorities, according to an AP report. In March 2019, she was arrested in Mission, Texas, for having a fake driver’s license and possessing an unlicensed gun, according to the CBC.  The charges were dismissed, but she did spend 20 days in jail, which is when authorities discovered she had overstayed her visa, the CBC reported. She was then deported back to Canada. Ricin, a poison found naturally in castor beans, is deadly, with as little as 500 micrograms being lethal. There is no antidote. Ferrier was expected to make her first court appearance Tuesday afternoon in Buffalo. 
 
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