"One of the things we covered was ricin," said Special Agent Tom Stewart, primary WMD coordinator in the FBI’s Albany Field Office, which covers about 60% of Upstate New York and all of Vermont. "And here it is two months later and a partner who attended the training tells me, 'Hey, I just got a call. We have a ricin case.'"

There were no deaths or lasting injuries in the case, and the woman was convicted and sentenced for possessing a deadly toxin. But the case was a vivid example of how FBI WMD coordinators in each of the Bureau's 55 field offices work to get ahead of threats by getting in front of partners and raising awareness before potential emergencies occur.

"A lot of times people don't know exactly what a WMD incident would look like, but they see some signs that are unsettling, and they want to run it by us," said Special Agent Sheila Caviggiola, primary WMD coordinator in the FBI’s Chicago Field Office, one of the Bureau's larger field offices. "We do everything we can on the front end to make those contacts. And we really want to make sure they feel comfortable calling us."

The FBI is the lead federal agency for responding to WMD threats. The Bureau's program has existed since 1995, but in 2006 it shifted to a more operational posture as the Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate inside the Bureau's National Security Branch. The directorate, located at FBI Headquarters, develops the overall policy, guidance, and countermeasures for operators in the field. In FBI field offices across the U.S., WMD coordinators put it all into action.

"We're the boots on the ground," said Caviggiola.

Their primary roles include training first responders, partners, and even fellow agents and task force officers on the different modalities of WMD investigations—chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosive, often referred to as CBRNE. They are subject matter experts who coordinate the tactical responses when WMDs are suspected.

In the Vermont case, for example, WMD coordinator Tom Stewart led all the responding agencies through the FBI’s Threat Credibility Evaluation (TCE) to determine the gravity of the threat and develop a plan of action. While the TCE process follows strict guidelines established by national policy for interagency responses, the FBI also developed a 14-point checklist—available on an FBI phone application—that helps WMD coordinators and first responders evaluate and process scenes that may not rise to the level of Headquarters involvement.

"We're constantly in a state of being an investigator and being an educator," Stewart said. Indeed, many WMD coordinators wear multiple hats: the full cadre includes SWAT operators, special agent bomb technicians, and members of evidence response teams (ERT) and hazardous evidence response teams (HERT). Like each of those disciplines, WMD coordinators receive extensive training and certifications before stepping into the uniquely dangerous role.

In another notorious case, Khalid Aldawasari, a Saudi Arabian student living in Lubbock, Texas, was arrested in 2011 for buying a chemical explosive precursor. The chemical supply company called the FBI when they considered his order suspicious.

That kind of tip illustrates why the FBI and its WMD coordinators conducted over 1,500 trainings and 230 exercises related to WMD threats in the past year alone. A key element of all the training is to teach attendees where they can turn if they see something suspicious. The WMD Directorate calls these notifications "tripwires, and they give authorities the opportunity to look into a purchase like a large amount of fertilizer, for example, which could be legitimate—or the precursor for an explosive device.

"We want to get out in the community, make them aware of suspicious activities, suspicious purchases, items of concern, things that if they go missing or are stolen that the FBI is concerned about from a WMD perspective," Caviggiola said.

"If they have any doubt if they should call or shouldn't call, just call," said Brandon Frieder, battalion chief of a fire department in Northern Virginia, who as a task force officer in the FBI’s Washington Field Office is also an assistant WMD coordinator. "I think the biggest thing is to know who your WMD coordinator is."

Albany Special Agent Stewart agreed. That’s why WMD coordinators do so much training with partner agencies and local companies and organizations.

"One of the things I want to stress is we don't want to show up at the crisis scene or the incident and we’re flipping business cards up," he said. "We want to know each other. We already have that relationship. It just makes it a lot easier."