Chinese student jailed over ricin plot
Print Edition
A New York student from China has been sentenced to 16 years in prison for trying to acquire ricin so he could sell “simple and easy death pills.”
Le Cheng, 22, was sentenced on Tuesday in Manhattan federal court following his conviction in August on charges he tried to acquire ricin as a weapon, postal fraud and identity theft. Ricin is a fatal toxin with no known antidote.
Judge Alison Nathan said the “horrible, serious and quite terrifying offense” required a severe sentence, but added that no one had been harmed by the plot because Le’s communications were intercepted online.
Among evidence introduced at his trial were statements Le made in writing about getting ricin from an FBI covert employee, including: “If you can make them into simple and easy death pills, they’d become bestsellers.”
Le was arrested in December 2014 after he contacted an FBI covert employee using an encrypted messaging service and asked if he sold ricin. Authorities said Le was wearing latex gloves when he went to a post office to retrieve a fake shipment of pills.
Lawyer Patrick Brackley urged leniency, citing a letter from Le’s parents describing his immaturity when he came to the United States to study physics at New York University.
Le said he lives with regrets.
“Not a day goes by where I don’t think of all the things I could have done,” Le said.
He dabbed his eyes with tissue several times in court before he was led away in shackles.
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