According to the German investigators, the suspect, a 29-year-old man of a Tunisian origin, who had been detained by the police in Cologne on Tuesday, was using ricin in order to produce biological weapons, Welt TV channel reported on Thursday.
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Originally, police detained both the man and his wife, who was a German citizen, converted to Islam. However, the woman was released shortly afterward. According to the Koelner Stadt-Anzeiger newspaper, the suspect, who arrived in Germany in November 2016, had no previous criminal records.
During the house check, police discovered a considerable amount of a substance, later identified as ricin, one of the most toxic substances known. The organic plant-based poison is six times more toxic than potassium cyanide and there is no antidote for it. To kill a person or to do considerable damage to someone's health, ricin must enter the body by being inhaled or be injected directly into the blood.