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DHL parcel station: The alleged blackmailer turned himself in to the police
Photo: Sebastian Gollnow / DPA
The alleged blackmailer of the parcel service DHL could soon be brought to trial.
The Potsdam public prosecutor's office has brought charges against the 36-year-old, as the authority announced on its website.
The man, who turned himself in to the authorities at the end of May, is accused of "numerous attempts at blackmail to the detriment of German parcel service providers."
Among them "attempted heavy robbery extortion in three cases, each with attempted dangerous bodily harm and attempted causing an explosive explosion, as well as attempted robbery extortion in six other cases," as the public prosecutor announced.
Parcel bomb in Potsdam
On December 1, 2017, a package was delivered to a pharmacy in downtown Potsdam in the immediate vicinity of the Christmas market stalls. While unpacking, the employees discovered wires. The package was then carried from the pharmacy. In the package there was a tin can with hundreds of small nails, batteries and wires, a suspicious powder and a so-called Polish firecracker. According to the investigators, the package bomb was extremely dangerous and could have detonated. In a letter, DHL asked for a sum of millions in Bitcoins. Nobody got hurt.
It later emerged that at the beginning of November 2017 a first explosive shipment from the DHL extortionist had arrived at the Postzentrum Frankfurt (Oder).
This caught fire when it was opened, which also destroyed the extortion letter.
Further explosive shipments were received by a Berlin bank branch in January 2018 and by the Chamber of Crafts in Berlin in April 2018.
The extortionist was searched intensively.
According to the authorities, a total of more than 350 officers were involved in the investigation, which has been going on for around three and a half years.
They followed up more than a thousand traces and clues.
ptz / dpa
