Anthrax extortion plot linked to Hawai`i

Local FBI investigators are looking into a letter sent from Hawai`i that threatened an anthrax attack against a small Canadian company in an $2 million extortion attempt. Saskatoon-based CMS Industries Inc. received the letter on Friday, according to a Monday press release from Saskatoon City Police, and it demanded that two $1 million checks be sent to two people in Hawaii by June 15.

The letter is being jointly investigated by the FBI, Interpol, and Saskatoon police.

Investigators have already determined from the postmark that the letter did originate in the islands.

In an article in the Regina Leader-Post, the head of a Toronto-based think-tank that specializes in terrorism said the letter is more likely the result of a personal grudge, not a political or idealogical protest.

“When you come right down to it, there’s somebody with a bruised ego here and is thinking that a million dollars will assuage that bruise,” Mackenzie Institute president John Thompson told the Leader-Post.

“The selection of the target is just too weird,” he said. “If it was a real threat, you’d certainly pick a lot more of a commercial industry than this.”

CMS Industries specializes in first aid and survival equipment and supplies.

Saskatoon is the largest city in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan.