A spokesman for the Burgenland police told APA that the man was detained by the police with the help of the Federal Criminal Office. He added that investigators are still questioning her.
The newspaper Kronen Zeitung, citing its sources, wrote that the detention took place in the Austrian state of Salzburg. On the contrary, the first reports mentioned Burgenland. The newspaper also recalled that an international team of investigators worked on the case.
The food company HiPP, which is based in Germany, received an e-mail at the end of March in which, according to Die Presse, the extortionist demanded two million euros (49 million crowns), otherwise he threatened to poison the baby food. But the company noticed the news only on April 16, when it informed the police. Regarding the delay, the company stated that the e-mail came to a general address and not to the mailbox of a specific employee.
It is assumed that the extortionist poisoned six bottles of food. The police have seized five of them so far, and all of them contained rat poison. The authorities secured two packages in the Czech Republic, two in Slovakia and one in Austria. There, the search continues for one more contaminated package. It could have been sold in the city of Eisenstadt, which is located near the border with Hungary and which is the capital of Burgenland. According to the authorities, it is possible that the package, which has not yet been identified, was bought by a customer from Hungary.
After securing the first glass in the country, the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES) warned that the substances contained in rat poisons reduce blood clotting and their ingestion may result in bleeding from the gums or nose, bruising or the presence of blood in the stool.
