NEW YORK (AP/RNN) - Former Vice President Joe Biden and actor Robert De Niro became the most recent targets of an apparent mass mail bombing effort targeting high-profile Democrats and critics of the president.
During a news conference Thursday, John Miller, Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence and Counterterrorism for the New York Police Department said that officials don’t know if there are more packages out there, fearing there are some that have not yet arrived at their targets.
Officials said that the white powder included in some of the packages, including the one sent to CNN, was not biological.
Investigators are looking at Florida, believing that some of the packages may have originated in that state, according to a few reports. Federal investigators are following multiple leads.
Two packages which were discovered Thursday and addressed to Biden, appeared to match others sent to targets. At least one was sent to an address in Wilmington, DE, but officials discovered them at post offices in Wilmington and New Castle.
A package, addressed De Niro at Tribeca Productions in New York, was delivered Wednesday and reported to authorities early in the morning Thursday. It reportedly made it into the seventh floor of the building. The NYPD bomb squad removed it from the scene.
New York Mayor Bill DeBlasio confirmed that a explosive device was found in the package at De Niro’s office but was removed from the office successfully and without injury.
All devices are being sent to the FBI for examination, and all are being treated as potentially explosive devices.
He credited a “quick-witted” security guard for acting fast upon discovery of the package.
“This is clearly an effort to terrorize people politically,” DeBlasio said of the devices.
He called the pattern of the similar-looking packages “extraordinarily consistent” but urged people everywhere to be aware of weird-looking packages, even those that may not strictly follow the pattern of these devices.
The device is being examined at an NYPD facility in the Bronx, the mayor said.
Authorities said the package appears identical to the ones discovered Wednesday sent to former President Barack Obama and presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, among others.
The packages may contain explosive devices, and like the previous packages, included the return address of Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, with her name misspelled.
