A Brazil Barber has admitted to blowing up a supermarket and blackmailing its owner into giving him money bitcoin (btc) Ransom.
in one official police releaseAuthorities said the man demanded a BTC payment of less than $61,000.
The man, described as a 33-year-old barber with no criminal record, told the customer service team of a supermarket chain that an explosive device would be detonated in the store if he did not receive the coins.
When the team refused to pay the ransom, Barber detonated a “home-made” device in a branch of the supermarket.
Two people were badly injured.
One was a seven-year-old child, and the other was an adult.
Others were treated for minor injuries.
Police raided the house of the suspect and recovered material used to make the explosive device.
Authorities said they seized gunpowder and electronic equipment used for “remote detonation” as well as “ammunition, a motorcycle and other items” allegedly used to commit the crime.
Police said the incident happened in the city of Rondoñopolis, which has about 239,000 residents.
The city is located in the state of Mato Grosso in western Brazil.
The supermarket, part of a chain, reportedly “began to receive app messages from a man who claimed to be a member of an organization that takes extremely violent actions.”
After the blast, the same person allegedly contacted the company’s customer service team and threatened to detonate more devices if the payment was not received.
Police said that after being arrested, the barber has confessed to the whole thing.
Bitcoin blackmail bomber: ‘planned to use a coin mixer’
Authorities also claimed that Barber had “meticulously planned” the crime, and began purchasing explosives in October 2022.
Police said he had “confessed to planting the supermarket bomb” on March 31, 2022, before detonating the device on April 4.
They said the man had been studying “homemade bombs” for 15 years, and that he “planned to use a coin mixer” to throw investigators off his trail.
But, the police claimed, after “seeing” the devastation caused by the first explosion, he no longer wanted to continue with his plan to detonate the second device.
Last month the police raided a Sex-torsion ring that demanded that victims pay crypto ransom,
The operators had obtained “intimate” photos and videos of the victims and told them they would make these materials public if a ransom was not paid.