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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Sam Levine

Letters containing fentanyl sent to several US states’ election offices

Emergency and law enforcement agencies respond to a possible hazmat situation at the King County Elections office in Renton, Wash., Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2023. Four county elections offices in Washington state were evacuated Wednesday after they received envelopes containing suspicious powders — including two that field-tested positive for fentanyl — while workers were processing ballots from Tuesday’s election.
Washington’s secretary of state, Steve Hobbs, said the letters were ‘acts of terrorism’. Photograph: Karen Ducey/AP

Law enforcement officials in the US are searching for the people responsible for sending letters with suspicious substances sent to election offices in at least five states, acts some election officials described as “terrorism”.

Election offices in Georgia, Nevada, California, Oregon and Washington state all were sent the letters, four of which contained the deadly drug fentanyl, the Associated Press reported. Some of the letters were intercepted before they arrived. The FBI and United States Postal Service are investigating.

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