Four state offices in Denver and Lakewood received letters Monday containing white powder determined to be sugar and artificial sweetener a day after a biological-weapons scare at a south Denver bank.
Investigators believe that Monday’s letters, which triggered evacuations at each site, are connected, but those do not seem to be linked to an envelope containing capsules received Sunday at the UMB Bank.
Two letters received in downtown Denver – one at 1313 Sherman St. and another at the World Trade Center building on the 16th Street Mall – came with threats, Denver fire Lt. Phil Champagne said.
“The wording was life-threatening,” Champagne said. “While they were relatively similar, they didn’t have the same exact wording.”
About 300 state workers were evacuated just after 1 p.m. for about an hour from the Centennial Building on Sherman, where four people, including a Colorado State Patrol officer, were exposed to the powder, Champagne said. The letter was sent to the Colorado Geological Survey office on the seventh floor, he said.
At virtually the same time a few blocks away, the Trade Center’s 27th floor and the floor above and below were evacuated when two workers were exposed to the envelope, Champagne said. The state facilities on that floor include the offices of international trade and minority business, according to the building’s directory.
A letter sent to the state Department of Agriculture at 700 Kipling St. in Lakewood did not contain threats, said Lakewood police spokesman Steve Davis.
The building also houses State Patrol headquarters. Hundreds of employees were evacuated at 3 p.m., said State Patrol Trooper Eric Wynn, but dispatch services were not interrupted.
Four Agriculture Department employees who came in contact with the powder had their hands washed with decontamination fluids, said Micki Trost, a West Metro Fire spokeswoman.
About 4 p.m., the office of the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies at 1560 Broadway was evacuated when a letter containing powder was found.
The FBI and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service will investigate the letters, including the one received Sunday at the UMB Bank at 6900 E. Hampden Ave.
State Patrol spokesman Lance Clem told The Associated Press that at least one envelope had information that will make it “interesting and easy to investigate,” but he did not elaborate.
Capsules found in the the bank’s mail were vitamins, Champagne said. Bank officials said the envelope could have been intended for an agency or utility company that has payments processed at the bank.
“It’s extremely rare for this to happen, and the fact that we’ve had two in the last couple of days is very rare,” U.S. Postal Inspector Andrew Rivas said. Similar national cases in the past have resulted in federal felony charges of mail fraud and threat by mail, punishable by up to five years’ incarceration, he said.
Denver’s mail-processing center has a sophisticated anthrax and bio-agent screening system and has not found any biological agent in the two years it has been in place, Rivas said.
Anyone with information about the incidents is asked to call the U.S. Postal Inspector’s Office at 303-313-5320.
Staff writer Manny Gonzales can be reached at 303-954-1537 or mgonzales@denverpost.com.
Staff writer Felisa Cardona can be reached at 303-954-1219 or fcardona@denverpost.com.
