Man gets probation for mailed substance to family

EAST ST. LOUIS — A southwestern Illinois man who threatened a family with a white substance he mailed them with a letter saying they should seek immediate medical treatment has been ordered to spend three years on probation.

A federal judge in East St. Louis also levied a $1,000 fine on 68-year-old Gary Smith of Livingston.

Smith pleaded guilty to charges of mailing a threatening communication and making a false threat.

Authorities say Smith mailed the letter in June of last year in Madison County and wrote that the family's hands were on fire from the granular substance in the envelope, and that they'd been infected with a disease.

The powder turned out to be unspecified food ingredients.