Daniel Harry Milzman, a 19-year-old Georgetown University student, was arrested Friday and charged with illegal possession of ricin, a deadly biological toxin.
Milzman is accused of making ricin in his McCarthy Hall dorm room about a month ago. More than 120 milligrams of the poison, a potentially lethal amount, was discovered in his room. Investigators said that Milzman searched for the recipe for ricin on his iPhone, Reuters reports.
Court reports show that Milzman bought Epsom salts and castor beans and other materials for making the chemical from the Home Depot and American Plant Company. He manufactured the chemical in his room and stored it in sealed plastic bags.
Milzman told his residential adviser about his activities and showed him some of the ricin he had made. The adviser approached the university's counseling services, who in turn contacted the police, according to the affidavit. A federal laboratory tested the contents of the bags and confirmed it to be ricin.
Jacqueline Maguire, an FBI spokeswoman, said that the law enforcement agency does not suspect Milzman of having any links with terrorists.
"Based on our investigation, we do not believe there is any connection to terrorism," said Andrew Ames, a spokesman for the FBI's Washington Field Office, Washington Post reports.
The Georgetown University said in a statement that no one on campus suffered from exposure to ricin. "There is no immediate threat to members of the Georgetown community." The statement also said that contractors, who specialize in dealing with biological hazards, were asked to clean Milzman's room.
Milzman, deemed a bright student, was a National Merit Scholarship semifinalist in high school and on the quiz bowl team. He was part of a group called the Secular Student Alliance at Georgetown. Friends described him as a person with a "good heart and a good conscience."
