Faced with an extortionist’s threat of bomb attacks, Czech police dropped bundles of money from a helicopter to meet the blackmailer’s demands, a police spokeswoman said.
“We dropped the money from a helicopter on Thursday, exactly like the extortionist demanded,” police spokeswoman Blanka Kosinova said Friday.
Two weeks earlier, police received a letter threatening bomb attacks unless about $330,000 was delivered, the online version of Mlada Fronta Dnes newspaper reported.
Police confirmed they had received a blackmail letter but declined to give details.
Kosinova declined to say what the blackmailer wanted but did not deny news reports that the letter demanded the money be divided into $13,200 parcels and dropped at 25 locations in the country’s northeast.
Interior Minister Stanislav Gross said the threat was considered serious after authorities found a bomb the blackmailer had planted at a railway bridge in the city of Olomouc, 155 miles east of Prague. The case did not appear to be linked to terrorism, he said.
