Green-Powder Mailer
Arrested in Brazil
Divino Aluizio de Souza,
the mailer who allegedly
sent a suspicious green
powder substance to
nearly 20 embassies
here, has been arrested
at Itapevie, west of
Gran Sao Paulo, police
said Friday.
After De Souza's
allegedly
self-incriminating
declarations in which he
claims to be a member of
Islamic Jihad,
investigators of Sao
Paolo's Homicide
Department believe he
has mental problem.
The police obtained De
Souza's address after
discovering that the
envelopes containing the
power were sent from the
Vila Leopoldina
neighborhood, west of
Sao Paolo.
The envelopes, received
Thursday by foreign
embassies, had Brazil's
coat-of-arms and
Brazilian President Luiz
Inacio da Silva's name
as mailer.
The green powder is not
dangerous, Brazil's
Federal Police National
Crime Institute
concluded.
Laboratory tests
revealed that the green
powder is composed of
oxygen, sodium, and
other materials that are
not radioactive,
specialists said.
The incident triggered
an intensified police
presence at embassies in
Sao Paolo.
Seventeen embassies in
Brazil, including the
embassies of the United
States, Britain, Japan,
Germany, Iran, Pakistan,
Saudi Arabia and
Australia, received the
envelopes with the
powder and a letter
claiming it was
radio-active material.
|
|
