DANGER

Blackmail Letters with Possible Cyanide Sent to Nine Japanese Companies

Among the targeted businesses are several drug companies and a newspaper.

Blackmail letters suspected of containing cyanide powder were sent to nine Japanese companies, according to an Agence France-Presse report. The letters, mailed under the name of several executed Japanese doomsday cult members, demanded $31,000 in bitcoin, AFP said. “Major pharmaceutical and other companies... received envelopes with threatening letters and a powdery substance” thought to be cyanide, a police spokesman reportedly said. One letter reportedly read: “I will make fake medicine containing potassium cyanide and distribute it,” and warning “a tragedy will happen” if the money were not delivered by Feb. 22. The now-deceased cult members named on the letters were part of Aum Shinrikyo, the group behind Tokyo’s 1995 sarin gas attack. Aum Shinrikyo’s leader, Shoko Asahara, was executed along with 12 followers in 2018.

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