Wife gets sick, Southern California man buys poison on darknet to kill wife

A man living in La Crescenta, Los Angeles County, was sentenced to three and a half years in prison on the 14th for attempting to murder his wife by mailing the deadly ricin (ricin).

The man is named Steven King (Steve S. Kim), 42 years old this year. This person had previously attempted to buy the deadly ricin on the Dark Net, an illegal trade. Ricin is one of the most toxic proteins currently documented. It only needs 0.2 mg to cause death and there is no antidote. In 2018, Jin agreed to pay about 350 yuan worth of bitcoins to buy ricin and cyanide on the dark web.

After being discovered by the police, Jin admitted that he was engaging in illegal activities, but claimed that he wanted to borrow the purchased toxic substances to commit suicide. However, the FBI later discovered in a conversation between Jin and the seller that Jin had plans to poison his wife who had an underlying disease. The federal prosecutor in charge of the case stated that in the past, Kim had browsed the dark web many times in an attempt to purchase dangerous toxic substances. In the end, prosecutors charged Jin with illegal possession of biological weapons.

Paul Delacourt, Assistant Director of the FBI in Los Angeles, who was involved in the investigation of the case, said that the suspect's attempted murder using biological poisons was indeed shocking. This sentence once again demonstrates the FBI’s determination to bring to justice all those who attempt to use weapons of mass destruction to commit violent or terrorist acts.