No toxins found in substance mailed by inmate to Baltimore courthouse, officials say

BALTIMORE -- The Maryland Department of Health found no biological toxins in a white powder mailed to a Baltimore City courthouse Monday afternoon, the Baltimore City Sheriff's Office said Tuesday. 

Officials said around 2:40 p.m. Monday, an employee on the second floor of the Baltimore City Circuit Court opened a letter addressed from an inmate at a state correctional facility, and inside was a white powdery substance. 

The employee contacted the sheriff's office, the building was put on lockdown and a hazmat response was made. Three individuals who made contact with the substance were hospitalized as a precaution, but no injuries have been reported. 

The Department of Health advised Tuesday that the room where the white powder was found could be decontaminated and then reopened.

The decontamination started Tuesday morning, officials said, and no hazard is posed to the rest of the court building on Calvert Street. 

A criminal investigation lead by the sheriff's office is ongoing.  

The Sheriff's Office is working with the with the Baltimore Police Department, United States Postal Service, the ATF, the FBI, the Maryland Coordination and Analysis Center and Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services.

"We have limited information but what we can say is that we believe, at this point, it came through the United States Postal Service," Baltimore City Sheriff Sam Cogen said Monday. "Doing something like this is a very, very, very serious thing and we reached out to our federal, state and local partners and we'll be doing everything we can to try to solve this."