Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced today that CHENG LE was found guilty of attempting to acquire ricin to use as a weapon, postal fraud, and identity theft. LE was convicted after a four-day jury trial before United States District Judge Alison J. Nathan.
U.S. Attorney Bharara said: “As a unanimous jury has found, Cheng Le attempted to acquire ricin, a potentially lethal toxin, through the Dark Web so that it could be used to kill without a trace. As Le himself put it, he was looking for ‘simple and easy death pills’ and ways to commit ‘100% risk-free’ murder. Thanks to the FBI, the NYPD, and the Postal Inspection Service, he was thwarted in his poisonous plot."
According to the allegations contained in the Complaint and Indictment filed in federal court, and the evidence presented at trial:
Ricin is a highly potent and fatal toxin with no known antidote. The “Dark Web" is a colloquial name for a number of extensive, sophisticated, and widely used online criminal marketplaces, which allow participants to buy and sell illegal items, including ricin.
In early December 2014, LE contacted an FBI online covert employee (the “OCE") on a particular Dark Web marketplace using an encrypted messaging service. The OCE had taken over the Dark Web identity from another individual who had a reputation for selling lethal poisons. After making contact with the OCE, LE inquired, “this might sound blunt but do you sell ricin?"
Following that initial contact, LE exchanged a series of messages with the OCE concerning his efforts to purchase ricin. During these messages, LE confirmed his understanding of the lethal nature of ricin, revealed his intent to resell the ricin to at least one secondary buyer, proposed that the OCE conceal the ricin in a single pill in an otherwise ordinary bottle of pills, and indicated a desire to obtain more ricin in the future. LE’s messages to the OCE included the following:
* “If [the ricin’s] good quality, I’ve already had buyers lining up."
* “Does ricin have antidote? Last I check there isn’t one, isn’t it?"
* “Injection can be difficult to pull off. Ricin doesn’t work immediately. You wouldn’t expect the target to not fight back after being jabbed."
* “The client would like to know... if it is wise to use ricin on someone who is hospitalized.... Injection will leave needle holes on the body which could be found in regular forensic examination. But hospitalized people already have needles in them so it wouldn’t be suspicious. Thing is, would ricin make the death look like someone succumbed to the injuries after an accident and didn’t make it through? In that case then, a little anethestical gas in the target’s car, get him drowsy when driving, get into an accident, and then kill him in the hospital bed."
* “I probably told you this before, about mixing one and only one toxic pill into a bottle of normal pills. They all look identical. And as the target takes the medicine every day, sooner or later he’d ingest that poisonous pill and die. Even if there is a murder investigation, they won’t find any more toxin. 100% Risk Free."
* “If you can make them into simple and easy death pills, they’d become bestsellers."
* “I’ll be trying out new methods in the future. After all, it is death itself we’re selling here, and the more risk-free, the more efficient we can make it, the better."
* “Also, besides that one bottle of pills with one poisonous pill in there, can you send some extra loose powder/liquid ricin? I’d like to test something."
Moreover, during these exchanges, LE further revealed to the OCE that he had a specific victim in mind: “someone middle-aged. Weight around 200 lbs."
On Dec. 18, 2014, LE directed the OCE to send a quantity of ricin in the name of an individual whose stolen identity LE had assumed, and to a particular postal box in Manhattan (the “Postal Box"). On Dec. 22, 2014, the FBI prepared a mock shipment of ricin (the “Sham Shipment") that was consistent with LE’s request to the OCE. The Sham Shipment included both a fake “ricin" tablet concealed in a pill bottle (the “Pill Bottle"), and a quantity of loose fake “ricin" powder. The next day, the Sham Shipment was delivered to the Postal Box. LE, wearing latex gloves, retrieved the Sham Shipment, opened it, and took the contents to his apartment.
When FBI agents entered LE’s apartment to arrest LE and to search the apartment, pursuant to a search warrant, they saw the Pill Bottle open in his apartment. The agents additionally recovered from LE’s apartment an envelope containing castor seeds, which is the substance from which ricin is derived. The agents further observed that LE’s computer - which was protected with encryption software - was open to the online account that he had used to communicate with the OCE and to LE’s personal email account.
* * *
LE, 22, of New York, New York was convicted of one count of attempting to possess a biological toxin for use as a weapon, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 175(a), which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison; one count of using a fictitious name in furtherance of unlawful business involving the mail, in violation of Title 18, United States, Section 1342, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison; and one count of aggravated identity theft during and in relation to a terrorism offense, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1028A(a)(2), which carries an additional mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison. This prosecution marked the first convictions after trial in this District for violations of Sections 175(a) and 1028A(a)(2).
The mandatory minimum and maximum potential sentences in this case are prescribed by Congress and are provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendant will be determined by a judge. Sentencing has not yet been scheduled.
Mr. Bharara praised the outstanding investigative efforts of the FBI’s New York Joint Terrorism Task Force - which principally consists of agents from the FBI and detectives from the New York City Police Department - and the United States Postal Inspection Service. He also thanked the National Security Division of the U.S. Department of Justice for its assistance.
The case is being prosecuted by the Office’s Terrorism and International Narcotics Unit. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ilan Graff and Andrew D. Beaty are in charge of the prosecution.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
