Mail Threat Alert - November 2023

White powder letters containing fentanyl, a deadly synthetic opioid, were sent to election offices in California, Georgia, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington. These events are significant for two reasons – their potential for personal harm and their scope. The use of fentanyl in targeted mail attacks, which can be deadly in extremely small quantities, is a paradigm shift from conventional “white-powder” letter hoaxes that contain benign substances intended to cause operational disruption and attract media attention instead of inflicting personal harm. The fentanyl-laced letters arrived just as absentee ballot counting began, indicating that the perpetrator knew that people would be handling the mail, putting them at significant risk of exposure.