City cops are using facial recognition software and leaning on the FBI and Interpol to learn more about the unhinged Swedish man who showed up at a Bronx police station with cyanide.
Jonathan Norling, 22, had more of the toxin and a suicide note in his Cadillac. Another poison, abrin, was found in his Cruger Ave. apartment, cops said. Officers also recovered 9-mm. pistol and an AR-15 assault rifle in his rented U-Haul truck.
While Norling is not believed to be a terrorist, police sources said he is very much a mystery man.
He claimed to have a background in chemistry and an expertise in computer hacking, though detectives doubt his claim that he hacked into Citibank when he was 14.
He admitted to police that he used fake identification and sources said authorities found no legitimate driver's license, passport or work papers belonging to him.
The Swedish national was living with his wife Mbene Ndiaye, 24, and their year-old daughter, Fatima, neither of whom were harmed by the toxins.
Ndiaye on Friday denied knowing any poison was in her home, but she declined to answer other questions, saying, "I cannot talk to you."
Her father, Aladji Ndiaye, 58, said he was stunned by the news of Norling's arrest.
"He seems nice," Norling's father-in-law said. "I didn't think he was strange."
The couple married a year and a half ago, Aladji Ndiaye said, adding that his wife was concerned Norling didn't have a college education and wanted the young couple to wait until he had a degree.
They worked out a compromise, with the parents giving their blessing to marriage and Norling enrolling at Manhattan Community College.
Aladji Ndiaye said his daughter is devastated by her husband's arrest..
"I see her crying all the time," he said. "I know he's a nice person."
A forensic search of Norling's electronics — a laptop, an iPad and three hard drives — could yield more clues about his background.
The NYPD is using facial recognition software to scrutinize Norling's photo and has asked the FBI and Interpol to run his fingerprints through its databases, sources said.
Norling was charged with unlawful possession of noxious materials and weapons possession and is undergoing a psychiatric observation at Bellevue Hospital. He is to be arraigned Tuesday and could also face federal charges.
Norling at first tried to blame the toxins on "Max," an associate for whom he claimed he made fake credit cards.
The suspect told police he wanted to stop working for Max and that Max sent him threatening mail with the cyanide.
But he later admitted to fabricating the story.
He told police he tried to make cyanide himself, failed to do so, then hacked into BMReloaded.com, an Internet black market that he accessed using The Onion Router, which is free software that provides online anonymity and hides the user's location. He then purchased the cyanide online. The buying of cyanide, was has legitimate uses in mining, is regulated by the government.
He said in his suicide note that he felt bad for killing himself and but that suicide was the only solution "to all the bad decisions he made in his life," one source said.
Meanwhile, police have not been able to find any connection between Norling and a woman who recently killed herself in Brooklyn by ingesting cyanide.
Still, tests are being conducted to see if the cyanide has the same chemical components as Norling's stash.