Breaking Bad: Employee Used Government Computer To Research Ricin In Virginia, Feds Say

A Virginia man is facing prison time after storing a sample of an illegal poison in his Fairfax County home, federal authorities announced.

Vienna resident Russell Richardson Vane IV, 42, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to possession of ricin by an unregistered person following his experiments into extracting the poisonous toxin from certain beans.

According to court documents, in December 2022, Vane conducted a number of searches on his federal government workplace computer for instructions on how to isolate ricin toxin from castor beans.

He later was able to obtain the beans and successfully separated ricin toxin from them in his residence in Vienna before disposing of the byproducts of the production.

Vane also admitted to storing a sample of the ricin in a test tube for further testing, but was unable to get the proper equipment to do so. Instead, he kept the ricin in a storage box in his Fairfax County home.

In April, laboratory equipment that Vane used to isolate the ricin was recovered during a search of his residence, and prosecutors made note that "Vane does not have a registration as required by regulations under the Public Health Services Act to lawfully possess ricin."

Ricin, made infamous in "Breaking Bad," can be made from the waste material left over from processing castor beans, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"Ricin is a poison found naturally in castor beans. If castor beans are chewed and swallowed, the released ricin can cause injury.

"It would take a deliberate act to make ricin and use it to poison people," health officials say. "Unintentional exposure to ricin is highly unlikely, except through the ingestion of castor beans."

When he is sentenced in November, Vane faces up to five years in prison.

Want breaking news in the DMV as it happens, or want to contribute? Join the DMV All Incidents Facebook group .