‘I will make fake medicine containing cyanide’: letter threats sent to major drug firms in Japan
- Blackmailer said they would sell the poisoned drugs unless they were given millions of won worth of bitcoin
- Letters were sent under different names, including Shoko Asahara, the executed Aum Shinrikyo cult founder, and people linked to gangsters
Six major pharmaceutical manufacturers in Tokyo and a newspaper company have received threatening letters demanding money and containing a white powdery substance believed to be highly poisonous cyanide, Tokyo police said on Saturday.
Suspicious envelopes arrived on Friday at the companies, including the Tokyo headquarters of The Mainichi Newspapers. They each had an A4 piece of paper inside saying, “I will make fake medicine containing potassium cyanide and distribute it. Send 35 million won in bitcoin by February 22. If not, a tragedy will happen.”
The police are investigating the case as attempted blackmail. Investigative sources said a drug maker in Osaka Prefecture also received a similar letter.
The letters were sent under different names, including Shoko Asahara, the executed Aum Shinrikyo cult founder whose real name was Chizuo Matsumoto, and people linked to gangsters. They also carried different addresses, such as detention facilities in Tokyo.
The police said similar threatening letters were also sent to some pharmaceutical manufacturers in Tokyo in January last year.