More than two years later he was arrested by the FBI on terrorism charges relating to the border incident, and Lavy hanged himself in his jail cell four days later.

Some media outlets called the incident a "thwarted terrorist attack" resulting in the death of the perpetrator,[1] while others have suggested Lavy was the innocent victim of a "tragic case" of an overzealous FBI agent and prosecutor.

[8] CQ Press claimed that Lavy was an alleged white supremacist,[9] based on unsubstantiated reports that "Neo-Nazi" literature may have been found in his vehicle.

[6][10] In the autumn of 1992, he visited his sister Betty Krieg and her husband Bill in Harvester, Missouri, and told them that he hoped to retire and purchase a small property where he could raise chickens and tend a garden.

[17] After calling the U.S. Customs to run a criminal background check which came back negative,[13] Lavy was denied entry into Canada, fined $750 for trying to import the weapons,[14] and the ricin powder was confiscated.

He was then released back into the United States and told to report to U.S. Customs; he did so, declaring $22,500 in cash and listing his address in Valdez as PO Box 1297.

[10] Canadian officials alerted their American counterparts of the incident, and also informed the Alaskan military base from which Lavy claimed to have stolen the poison.

[24] Lavy entered the Lower 48 through Portal, North Dakota on April 12, this time listing his mailing address in Arkansas as PO Box 894, HC 73, Onia.

[14] One FBI officer present later remarked that it was clear Lavy had no idea why he was the subject of a raid, and that his failed border crossing two years earlier likely never occurred to him.

[15][17] Despite the charge, police found no ricin at the time of the arrest,[10] although they did find several castor beans in a tin designed for Christmas fruitcake,[2] which he had purchased by mail from a woman in Oregon.

[19] Other contents seized at the house included several collector-model rifles, five pistols, several thousand dollars in cash and Krugerrand gold.

[28] At the bail hearing on December 23, FBI agent Lynch testified that Lavy's powder was potent enough to kill 32,000 people, and that the charge could merit life imprisonment.

U.S. Magistrate Jerry W. Cavaneau said that the government had not produced any evidence suggesting criminal intent, but ordered Lavy held without bail at the Pulaski County Detention Facility in Little Rock until a January court date in Alaska.

[6] In 2003, Richard Sand wrote a fiction book in which the protagonist Lucas Rook was responsible for arranging the "suicide" of Lavy, who was portrayed as a poisoner.