Package addressed to Trump containing poison ricin intercepted by law enforcement

White House mail is sorted and screened offsite, so package never entered building

The White House (Getty)

A package addressed to president Donald Trump containing the poison ricin has been intercepted by law enforcement, according to report.

Two law enforcement officials told CNN that tests confirmed the presence of the poison.

Mail addressed to the White House is sorted and screened offsite. The FBI and Secret Service are investigating the matter and are trying to determine if other packages were sent through the postal system.

An official has said that investigators believe the package may have come from Canada, The New York Times reports.

A statement from the FBI said: "The FBI and our US Secret Service and US Postal Inspection Service partners are investigating a suspicious letter received at a US government mail facility. At this time, there is no known threat to public safety."

The Independent has reached out to the White House for comment.

Ricin is found naturally in castor beans and can be made from the waste material left over when they are processed.

Ingesting or inhaling the poison can cause a range of painful symptoms from nausea through to organ failure and death through a collapse in the circulatory system.

In October 2018, envelopes containing suspicious substances were received by the Pentagon, White House, and campaign offices for Texas Senator Tex Cruz. 

The packages mailed to the Pentagon were addressed to then-secretary of defence James Mattis and to the chief of naval operations John Richardson.

William Clyde Allen III, a navy veteran from Utah, was charged with five counts including threatening to use a biological toxin. The castor powder he sent was not in its dangerous form. 

In May 2013, letters laced with ricin were sent to president Barack Obama and New York mayor Michael Bloomberg. Actress Shannon Guess Richardson was jailed for 18 years for sending the letters.