Jan. 16, 2007– Federal officials have revealed that a suspicious package delivered early Tuesday morning to the clerk's office at the Ron de Lugo Federal Building on St. Thomas contained a handwritten letter and an "unknown" white substance, according to a press release issued late Tuesday afternoon by the U.S. Marshals Service.
"U.S. Marshals from the District of the Virgin Islands responded to the incident upon notification and sealed off the areas concerned as a preliminary precaution," the release said. "The building was temporarily closed to the public as the investigation progressed. The letter and substance was removed from the building and sent locally to be analyzed."
Employees were allowed back into the federal building around noon. At approximately 4 p.m., the package was still inside the federal building but had been retrieved from the clerk's office by local Hazardous Material (HazMat) responders.
While federal and local authorities had reason to suspect that the package contained a more dangerous chemical substance, one source, speaking off the record, identified the substance as corn starch (See "Mysterious Package Causes Partial Evacuation of De Lugo Federal Building").
The Source will provide more information on the incident as it becomes available.
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