A 45-year-old man arrested in Morocco at the beginning of December has just been charged in Ontario for a series of bomb calls.
The Moroccan El Hachm El Moussi is said to have sent massive emails mentioning bomb threats in Canada and elsewhere in the world between October 18 and November 27.
According to a press release from the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP), the forty-year-old has just been charged with six counts of mischief, threats, and extortion.
On November 1, schools and other public establishments reportedly received bomb calls in Ontario. The calls were accompanied by demands for ransoms. Authorities did not find an explosive.
The PPO’s cybercrime investigation team worked in collaboration with the Belgian police and the Sûreté du Québec (SQ). It only took the police a few days to establish the link between the suspect and the events. They then obtained an arrest warrant.
The suspect was arrested in Tafraoute, Morocco, after raiding Belgium, forcing the closure of around thirty schools on November 27.
According to the Belgian prosecutor’s office, El Hachm El Moussi confessed to the facts during his interrogation.
The SQ, for its part, indicated in a press release that the man from Casablanca could be linked to around fifty files in Quebec.
The OPP will consult with the federal Department of Justice to determine how the accused will appear before the Ontario Court of Justice.
