White House Ricin Attacker Is Illegal Immigrant From Canada, Also Targeted Immigration Officials
The
New York Post names the suspect as 53-year-old Pascale Ferrier of Quebec, who was detained last year in Texas after authorities discovered she’d been using a fake driver’s license and had overstayed her visa. She pleaded not guilty to charges that she broke immigration law and the charges were eventually dismissed because it was her “first offense,”
according to the CBC. She spent just 20 days in jail before being released.
A report in the New York Times indicates that Ferrier was eventually deported back to Canada.
Ferrier’s most high profile target in the alleged attack was President Donald Trump, but authorities say she also sent ricin-laced envelopes to a number of immigration officials in Hidalgo, Texas, where she was detained in 2019 for the immigration violation, leading authorities to believe, at this point, that the attacks may be retribution for Ferrier’s run-in with immigration officials.
“Hidalgo County Sheriff Eddie Guerra on Monday afternoon said that ‘envelopes’ of ricin were mailed to him and three others in South Texas associated with the case, but resulted in no injuries. Border Report reached out to Guerra but he did not comment and tweeted this is an ‘active federal investigation,'” ABC News reported late Monday.