Envelopes containing a suspicious white powder arrived Monday at five California Children and Family Services Department office locations, the Whittier Daily News reported (see GSN, Oct. 14).
No personnel at the offices in Baldwin Hills, Chatsworth, El Monte, Lancaster or West Covina have displayed signs of sickness, officials said yesterday. Authorities had not identified any possible perpetrators.
"At least five letters were received at five separate locations at [department] offices," FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said.
"It appears to be politically motivated," she said, noting that the messages were "threatening in nature."
Emergency responders who handled the El Monte letter on Monday determined preliminarily that the powder was a rat poison, according to El Monte police Lt. Dan Burlingham. FBI investigators are examining whether the material contains any chemical, biological and radioactive agents, Eimiller said.
"We're not commenting on the initial testing, it's not necessarily always reliable," she said. "The (lab) results should be available soon."
Four people who came in proximity to envelope at the El Monte office received washings as a decontamination measure, Burlingham said, adding that none were sent to hospitals (Markus/Day, Whitter (Calif.) Daily News, Nov. 18).
Meanwhile, an FBI official said Monday that investigators found no biological-weapon agent in a powder-filled envelope that arrived at the Utah headquarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints last week, the Deseret Morning News reported.
"It is not any kind of biological agent or toxin or even a new strain," said FBI Special Agent Juan Becerra.
Similar letters were sent to a Mormon temple in Los Angeles and a Connecticut-based publishing house owned by the Catholic group Knights of Columbus. Both groups were strong supporters of a California constitutional amendment passed earlier this month to invalidate same-sex marriages.
Several gay advocacy groups have denounced the mailings, but Becerra stressed that the FBI has not linked the letters to the constitutional amendment (Ben Winslow, Deseret Morning News, Nov. 18).