LaBelle man sentenced to 9 years for selling toxins

TRENTON, N.J.- A LaBelle man was sentenced Wednesday for producing and selling potentially deadly toxins ricin and abrin for use as weapons and conspiring to kill a woman in the United Kingdom.

Jesse Korf, 20, was sentenced to 110 months in prison.

He faced the possibility of life in prison for selling and smuggling deadly drugs he made in Southwest Florida.

It’s been over a year since authorities busted a backyard chemical weapons operation in Labelle.

Korff plead guilty in August to making the deadly poison abrin from berries.

An indictment shows he sold the poison on an online black market and shipped it to people all over the world.

Federal prosecutors say Korff shipped the poison to a woman who tried to kill her own mother. When it didn’t work, Korff agreed to send her another deadly dose.

Korff’s sister Nancy Renaldi Hurtado spoke with WINK News right after her brother’s arrest.

“It’s sad because he is so young.”

When details of the poison plot emerged, she gave her own opinion on her brother’s potential punishment.

“I think he should be put away for life.”

Instead, the man who admited to making deadly poison will serve just over nine years in federal prison.

“This sentence should serve as a warning to those who capitalize from the use of underground websites such as BMR,” said John Woods, acting special agent in charge of HSI Newark.