A teenage boy and his father are being held under the Terrorism Act over a suspected Ricin poison plot by white supremacists.

Nicky Davison, 18, was arrested after police found the deadly poison ricin in a jam jar at his father Ian’s home on Tuesday.

Ian, a 41-year-old former pub DJ, is also being held after the anti-terror raid at the terraced house, on Myrtle Grove, Burnopfield, County Durham.

Nicky was initially arrested at his home in Grampian Court, Annfield Plain, on suspicion of inciting racial hatred but now both father and son are being detained under the Terrorism Act 2000.

Senior police say they believe the two could be part of worldwide terror plot targeting ethnic minorities.

Durham’s assistant chief constable Mike Barton said: “This shows that the terrorist threat in the UK is real and present.’

“We believe the people involved to be white supremacist extremists and one of our lines of inquiry was that they were going to target people from ethnic minorities.

“White supremacists seem to hate an awful lot of people.”

He added: “This will spawn an awful lot of intelligence which will then kick start other criminal counter terrorism inquiries elsewhere.”

Mr Barton said forensic officers have sealed off Ian Davison’s ’two-up two-down’ as a precaution.

“Specialist police officers have been carrying out a meticulous search of the Myrtle Grove property which is a terraced house.

“They have uncovered a substance, which we believe has traces of ricin.

“It was in a sealed jam jar that has been kept in a kitchen cupboard - apparently for up to two years.

“Tests on the substance were carried out at a Government laboratory in Edinburgh on Thursday.”

Specialists from the Ministry of Defence establishment at Porton Down are due in Durham to discuss the safe transfer of the substance to their laboratories for further tests, under a police or military escort.

Their report on the substance is expected in the next few days.

Ricin has been used in plots by suspected al Qaida operatives and can be fatal if when inhaled, ingested - injected.

It is made from the beans of the castor oil plant and is 6,000 times more poisonous than cyanide with only quantities as smaller than a grain of salt enough to prove lethal.

It was used by the Aum cult on the Tokyo subway system in 1995 in an attack that left 12 people dead.

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