A suburban man pleaded not guilty yesterday to a federal indictment charging him with illegally buying a deadly puffer fish poison to use it as a weapon, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

According to federal authorities, Edward F. Bachner IV, 35, planned to use the puffer fish neurotoxin as a weapon. The man’s target wasn’t revealed yet.

The10-count indictment claims that the Lake in the Hills man purchased the lethal substance five times between November 2006 and June 2008. The large quantities of the Tetrodotoxin can not be justified for legal reasons.

If convicted of acquiring the neurotoxin with the intention of using it as a weapon, Bachner faces a maximum sentence of life in prison. If convicted only of possession of an unjustified amount, he faces up to 10 years, the federal criminal complaint alleges. Besides, he can be fined up to $250,000 for each count.

The man has been held in police custody since June 30, when he was caught in Algonquin after trying to acquire Tetrodotoxin from a member of the FBI's joint-terrorism task force.

The FBI said Bachner ordered the toxic substance from a chemical firm located in New Jersey. With the pseudonym Edmond Backer, he pretended to be a doctor researching for an Illinois company, EB Strategic Research. An employee at the New Jersey chemical supply company soon notified the federal authorities, which discovered the fact that Bachner's alias and EB Strategic Research were bogus.

Following Bachner's federal court appearance in the U.S. District Court in Rockford, defense attorney James Marcus said his client wanted to oppose the charges. “We dispute them,” he said.