An Agawam man who was being held on a federal firearms charge allegedly mailed letters to the prosecutor and a newspaper threatening to attack a federal building in Springfield with a weapon of mass destruction, according to a nine-count indictment unsealed this week.
Federal authorities investigated the threats that Michael A. Crooker made while in custody in July 2004 and found a quantity of the toxin ricin, which had been processed for use as a biological weapon, the indictment said. They also found castor beans and rosary peas, the plants from which ricin and the toxin abrin are extracted, respectively.
The indictment, which was unsealed Monday in federal court in Springfield, did not specify the amounts of the toxins, their location, or how dangerous they were, nor did it identify a motive. A spokeswoman for US Attorney Michael J. Sullivan declined to elaborate on the case.
Crooker, 53, is serving nearly 22 years in federal prison after his conviction in July 2006 of transporting a firearm in interstate commerce as a convicted felon. He was charged with mailing an air rifle and sound muffler that authorities said could be used as an illegal silencer to a man in Ohio.
If convicted of the latest charges, he could be imprisoned for life.
Crooker was arrested on June 23, 2004, in his car with a pipe-shaped bomb containing potassium perchlorate and aluminum powder, Assistant US Attorney Kevin O'Regan said in court shortly afterward. Investigators found similar devices in Crooker's apartment, which prompted authorities to evacuate about 50 residents from two apartment houses. At the time, officials did not say how many devices were found.
Initially, however, authorities filed the charge involving only the alleged silencer.
The following month, while Crooker was in custody, he mailed a letter to a newspaper and to O'Regan threatening to use a weapon of mass destruction against the Federal Building and US Courthouse on Main Street in Springfield, the indictment said. The indictment did not identify the newspaper.
The new charges include three counts of possessing toxins for use as a weapon and one count of threatening to use a weapon of mass destruction.
Timothy G. Watkins, a federal public defender who represented Crooker in the firearms case, plans to defend him again.
"Mr. Crooker is saddened and disappointed that the government is choosing to spend its scarce resources on such a factually and legally weak case as that which was filed against him yesterday in Springfield," Watkins said in a written statement.
Crooker is being held at the Victorville Federal Correctional Complex, about 85 miles northeast of Los Angeles, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons website.
Crooker has filed numerous lawsuits against entities that include
Jonathan Saltzman can be reached at jsaltzman@globe.com.
