Berlin Resident Jailed for NHS Bomb Threats

An Italian national has been sentenced to three years behind bars after threatening to blow up NHS hospitals, MPs and Black Lives Matters protesters over the past year.

Berlin resident Emil Apreda, 33, was identified by the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) after emailing a series of threats to the Health Service last year, starting with a £10m Bitcoin extortion demand.

Apreda is said to have done so from his Berlin apartment, using anonymization techniques such as use of a Tor browser, to stay hidden. He claimed in the notes he was a member of far right organization Combat18.

Although the emails were written in English, investigators used behavioral, linguistic and other cutting-edge techniques to determine that the perpetrator was probably a fluent German speaker.

With the help of German law enforcement they traced the emails to an address in the Steglitz district of Berlin where the local state police or Landeskriminalamt (LKA) put Apreda under surveillance.

He is said to have sent 18 emails in all, threatening not only hospitals but also lawmakers and rights protesters in the UK.

“The threat made during the extortion demand significantly added to the pressures on the NHS during the COVID pandemic and meant senior leaders and emergency response staff were called on to direct the NHS aspects of the response to this threat,” said an NHS spokesperson.

“The threat and demand was made at a time that hospitals were at their most vulnerable, and could have resulted in significant loss of life.”

Firearms officers finally used explosives to force open the door to Apre ..

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