Editing Ricin (section)

==Terrorist use==
{{main|List of incidents involving ricin}}
Ricin has been involved in a number of actual or planned attacks on individuals. In 1978, the Bulgarian dissident [[Georgi Markov]] was assassinated by [[Bulgarian secret police]] who surreptitiously shot him on a London street with what was later found to have been a [[Bulgarian umbrella|modified umbrella]] using [[compressed gas]] to fire a tiny pellet containing ricin into his leg.<ref name="Schep"/><ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/europe/01/07/terror.poison.bulgarian/ |title=Ricin and the umbrella murder |access-date=15 March 2008 |publisher=[[CNN]] |date=7 January 2003}}</ref> He died in a hospital a few days later; his body was passed to a special poison branch of the [[British Ministry of Defence]] that discovered the pellet during an [[autopsy]]. The prime suspects were the Bulgarian secret police: Georgi Markov had [[defection|defected]] from Bulgaria some years previously and had subsequently written books and made radio broadcasts that were highly critical of the Bulgarian [[communist regime]]. However, it was believed at the time that Bulgaria would not have been able to produce the pellet, and it was also believed that the KGB had supplied it. The KGB denied any involvement, although high-profile KGB defectors [[Oleg Kalugin]] and [[Oleg Gordievsky]] later confirmed the KGB's involvement. Soviet dissident [[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]] developed (but survived) ricin-like symptoms after an encounter in 1971 with KGB agents.<ref>{{cite book | vauthors = Thomas DM |title=Alexander Solzhenitsyn: A Century in His Life |pages=368–378 |publisher=St. Martin's Press |isbn=978-0-7567-6011-3 |year=1998 |edition=First}}</ref>

Ten days before the attack on Georgi Markov another Bulgarian defector, [[Vladimir Kostov]], survived a similar attack. Kostov was standing on an escalator of the Paris metro when he felt a sting in his lower back above the belt of his trousers. He developed a fever, but recovered. After Markov's death the wound on Kostov's back was examined and a ricin-laced pellet identical to the one used against Markov was removed.<ref name="Harkup-2015" />

Several terrorist individuals and groups have experimented with ricin or planned to use it.<ref>{{cite news| title=Internet dating couple jailed for plotting IS attack in Britain | newspaper=Guernsey Press | date=22 February 2018 | url=https://guernseypress.com//news/uk-news/2018/02/22/internet-dating-couple-jailed-for-plotting-is-attack-in-britain/}} One of many news items on plots to use ricin for terrorism.</ref> There have been incidents of the poison being mailed to US politicians. For example, on 29 May 2013 two anonymous letters sent to New York City Mayor [[Michael Bloomberg]] contained traces of it.<ref name="urlLetters to NYC Mayor Bloomberg contained ricin">{{cite web |url=http://news.msn.com/us/letter-to-nyc-mayor-bloomberg-contained-ricin |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130616004814/http://news.msn.com/us/letter-to-nyc-mayor-bloomberg-contained-ricin |url-status=dead |archive-date=16 June 2013 |title=Letters to NYC Mayor Bloomberg contained ricin |agency=Associated Press |date=30 May 2013 |publisher=MSN News }}</ref> Another was sent to the offices of [[Mayors Against Illegal Guns]] in Washington, D.C. A letter containing ricin was also reported to have been sent to American President [[Barack Obama]] at the same time. [[Shannon Richardson]], an actress, was later charged with the crime, and pleaded guilty that December;<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/08/shannon-richardson-ricin-plot-husband |title=Bit-part actor charged over plot to frame husband for ricin letters | vauthors = Harris P |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=8 June 2013}}</ref> she was sentenced to 18 years in prison plus a [[restitution]] fine of [[US$]]367,000.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://edition.cnn.com/2014/07/16/justice/texas-ricin-actress-sentenced/index.html?hpt=hp_t3|title=Texas actress who sent Obama ricin sentenced to 18 years | vauthors = McLaughlin EC |publisher=CNN|date=16 July 2014|access-date=16 July 2014}}</ref> On 2 October 2018, two letters suspected of containing ricin were sent to [[The Pentagon]], one addressed to Secretary of Defense [[James Mattis]], and the other to Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral [[John M. Richardson (admiral)|John Richardson]].<ref name="urlRicin detected in mail sent to Pentagon">{{cite web |url=http://www.cnn.com/2018/10/02/politics/pentagon-ricin-mail/index.html |title=Ricin detected in mail sent to Pentagon |date=10 October 2018 |publisher=CNN}}</ref> A letter was received on 23 July 2019 at [[Pelican Bay State Prison]] in California which claimed to contain a suspicious substance. Authorities later confirmed it contained ricin; no detrimental exposures were identified.<ref name="pelican bay">{{cite news | title=Suspicious substance which caused Pelican Bay building evacuation identified as ricin | vauthors = Maravelias P | date=27 July 2019 | url=https://krcrtv.com/north-coast-news/eureka-local-news/suspicious-substance-which-caused-pelican-bay-building-evacuation-identified-as-ricin | website=[[KRCR-TV]]}}</ref>

In 2020, some media in the Czech Republic reported, based on intelligence information, that a person carrying a Russian diplomatic passport and ricin had arrived in Prague with the intention of assassinating three politicians. Russian president [[Vladimir Putin]] denied the reports. The targets were said to have been [[Zdeněk Hřib]], the mayor of [[Prague]] (capital of the Czech Republic), who was involved in renaming a square in Prague, "Pod Kaštany", where the Russian embassy is situated, to the Square of [[Boris Nemtsov]], an opposition politician assassinated in the  [[Kremlin]] in 2015; [[Ondřej Kolář (politician)|Ondřej Kolář]], the mayor of [[Prague 6]] municipal district, who was involved in removing the controversial statue to the Soviet-era [[Marshal Konev]]; and [[Pavel Novotný (politician)|Pavel Novotný]], the mayor of Prague's southwestern [[Řeporyje]] district. They all received police protection.<ref name="prague-guardian">{{cite news | vauthors = Roth A |title=Prague mayor under police protection amid reports of Russian plot |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/27/prague-mayor-under-police-protection-amid-reports-russian-plot-zdenek-hrib |access-date=29 April 2020 |work=The Guardian |date=27 April 2020}}</ref><ref name="prague_bbc">{{cite news |title=Police protecting Prague mayor after 'murder plot' |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-52455223 |access-date=29 April 2020 |work=BBC News |date=29 April 2020}}</ref> Czech president [[Miloš Zeman]] later described the police protection of Zdeněk Hřib as an attempt by an insignificant politician to gain attention. Zeman also confused ricin with non-poisonous [[laxative]] [[castor oil]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Czech president lashes out at Prague mayor under police protection|url=https://www.politico.eu/article/milos-zeman-czech-president-lashes-out-at-prague-mayor-under-police-protection/| vauthors = Mortkowitz S |date=6 May 2020|website=Politico|access-date=7 May 2020}}</ref>

In 2018<ref>{{cite news|agency=Associated Press | title=German prosecutors arrest man over alleged ricin attack plot |newspaper=The Guardian | date=14 June 2018 | url=http://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/14/german-prosecutors-arrest-man-over-plot-to-launch-ricin-attack}}</ref> and 2023 German police thwarted attempted ricin attacks, after tip-offs believed to have come from the US [[FBI]].<ref>{{cite news| last=Connolly | first=Kate | title=German police arrest Iranian man suspected of planning chemical attack |newspaper=The Guardian | date=8 January 2023 | url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/08/german-police-arrest-iranian-man-suspected-of-planning-chemical-attack}}</ref>