NSW: Australian extortion threats

AAP General News (Australia)
12-19-2005
NSW: Australian extortion threats

Australia's high-profile extortion threats in recent years:

October 2005 - Australia's biggest fruit juice producer, Berri, stops production at
its South Australian plant after a threat to contaminate imported fruit concentrate.

July 2005 - Snickers and Mars Bars chocolates withdrawn from sale in NSW following
threats that seven bars have been contaminated. MasterFoods says tens of thousands of
chocolate bars are destroyed.

March to April 2005 - Australian construction giant Multiplex receives demands for
$50 million. The extortionist threatens to kill the company's crane drivers.

January 2001 - An extortion threat is made against Sanitarium following a similar contamination
threat in 1998. A man is later arrested.

March 2000 - A Brisbane doctor and his son are poisoned by strychnine in Herron paracetamol
capsules. Herron destroys $40 million in stock and loses 20 per cent of paracetamol market.

March 1999 - A man threatens to contaminate Coca-Cola soft drinks with glass and poison
unless the company pays him $927,000.

June 1998 - Sanitarium Health Foods withdraws $600,000 worth of stock after a threat
to contaminate products, apparently by someone with a grudge against its owners, the Seventh
Day Adventist Church.

May 1997 - A former policeman injects poison into Nestle products at a Sydney supermarket
in an attempt to extort $4 million.

February 1997 - A threat is made to poison Arnott's biscuits by someone protesting
the innocence of a convicted murderer. It leads to $10 million in losses. Three hundred
casual jobs are later lost.



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