He threatened to poison mineral waters and food products in supermarkets , with injections of cyanide and rat poison , if he did not obtain the payment of a ransom , required in cryptocurrencies . For this reason, a 47 -year-old resident in the province of Trieste was arrested by the Postal Police at the request of the Rome Public Prosecutor's Office .
According to what was reconstructed by the investigators, the arrested person hid behind anonymous emails , sent through foreign providers, and published online demonstration videos on the methods of poisoning, to appear even more persuasive in blackmailing food companies, victims of extortion.
The threats were allegedly made against around 200 companies located not only in Italy but also in Germany, France, Spain, Austria and Switzerland.
THE INVESTIGATIONS - The story began in August 2021 and continued until May 2022 . The alleged extortionist demanded payment in cryptocurrency of large sums of money, threatening the poisoning and marketing of the products distributed by the companies contacted, by contamination with poisons. The threat also provided for the subsequent disclosure , through the press , of the poisoning of the products, with potentially very significant social alarm, image and economic damage for companies and above all causing a very serious danger to the health of consumers.
The prosecutors ordered a home search against the suspect who was under probationary custody to social services, an alternative measure to detention granted him precisely following a previous sentence , definitively, for other crimes of computer fraud and extortion.
During the activity, a series of objects were found including a tablecloth , an oven , a scale for the weight of food, completely identical to those that appeared in an amateur video shot by the suspect, in which the methods were represented. of poisoning to be carried out by inserting thallium sulphate inside product cans.
The evidence collected by the Postal Police allowed the Judge of Surveillance of Trieste to revoke the previously granted reward measure, alternative to prison, and subsequently to the Rome investigating judge to order the measure of detention in prison due to the danger of reiteration of the crime .
(Unioneonline / vl)
