A man who admitted trying to extort $180,000 from a supermarket chain by threatening to put poisoned baby food on store shelves was sentenced Friday to 5 years in federal prison.
David Ian Dickinson, 43, pleaded guilty last year. He said he was under “extreme duress” when he made the threat to Ralph’s supermarket chain a year ago. He said he wanted money to pay for his ailing 5-month-old son’s college education.
Judge Dean Pregerson called Dickinson’s crime “a villainous act, a close cousin to terrorism.”
Prosecutors said Dickinson sent to a Ralph’s corporate office a package with four products and a “blackmail demand.” No tainted products made it onto store shelves.
Dickinson of Middlesbrough, England, is expected to be deported after his prison term.
