Shakedown in Northern Sealand

Everybody is familiar with the classic protection racket: the Mafia underling with his thuggish sidekick pays a visit to a business and tells the owner, “This is a nice little operation ya got goin’ here, Frankie. Be a pity if anything was to happen to it, ya know?”

But when cultural enrichment gets thrown into the mix, the racket can become something quite different. Not only does their holy book, the Koran, provide religious justification for the shakedown, the enrichers can use it as a handy how-to manual for their extortion.

The sole rule is that only non-Muslims may be shaken down. And not only are they fair game, but they owe the payments to the community of believers. Allah says so!

Now it seems that some enterprising operators in Denmark have developed a new business model, a culturally enriched extension of the standard protection racket: they are sending threatening letters to individual families, demanding payment and detailing the consequences if the recipients don’t pony up.

Here’s the text of the letter. The bizarre phrases and grammatical errors can be found in the original, which was written in English:

3rd December 2009

Dear [ ],

For some time we have kept you under our scope. You are blessed with a lovely family and we hope you appreciate this fortune of live, nothing is static. We apologize for the poorly chosen time of approach (Your holy month), and will respectfully keep a distance whilst You and Your family enjoys Your RR.

Out lives may sometimes turn down a road we didn’t foresee, on some occasions we can change this course, on others we can’t.

Your live is about to take such a turn, and it is up to you if you want to get it back on track, entirely up to you, we might add!

In our country, we are so familiar to changes, radical changes, so we know what we are talking about. Your part of the world have exploited us for centuries (not you personally though), so in all fairness it would be appropriate if you lend a helping hand.

For some reason we can’t get your government to take appropriate course of action, hence this solution.

We are civilized people, although you my think otherwise, but In order to be taken seriously, we have to stand try our terms and statements.

For this purpose, we have hired “local contractors”, surprisingly easy in Denmark, whom will carry out the more uncivilized part, let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,

In short we request you to deliver 215.000,00 Danish Kroner [roughly $40,000] (can be converted into USD or Pound Sterling), details will follow later on. We will give you 6 weeks from today’s date. The amount will not break you financially, we know, and we never use the same beneficial twice.

Obviously there are certain rules, simple ones.

• Do not share this with anyone or anybody.
  
• Meet our terms, promptly.

If you fail to comply, and we will find out, we will have to initiate the next step, which will be disabling a family member. Second step, if, necessary, will be more fatal. There is no room for negotiation or second chance. Once we press the red button, others will take over.

The people who will carry out this task does not know us and we do not know them. Due to the way they are getting paid, they will perform, trust us!

We hope you will take this seriously, we have nothing to loose.

We will get back to you shortly.

Regards

Below is a translated article about the letters from today’s Jyllands-Posten. Many thanks to our Danish correspondent TB for the translation (N.B.: Sealand (Sjælland) is the largest island of the Danish archipelago, and home to the capital, Copenhagen):
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Threatening letters flourish in Northern Sealand

Several people in the Gentofte Area have received a threatening letter which demands that they pay 215,000 kroner if they love their family. See the letter here.

“If you do not meet our demands, which we will notice, we will have to go to step two, which will mean that one of your family members will be disabled.”

That was the message translated from English in all of the threatening letters that several citizens in the Gentofte Area have received during the last few days.

The letters are addressed personally and were mailed from a central post office in Mid-Sealand on December 3.

A “suitable” blackmail

The anonymous senders demand that 215,000 kroner be delivered within the next six weeks. As a reason for the blackmail, the senders state among other things that:

“Your part of the world has exploited us for centuries (though not you personally), so it will only be suitable if you give us a helping hand.”

In the letter the senders explicitly state that they are civilized people who have felt it necessary to go to extremes, which is why they have hired local hooligans to do the nasty part of the job.

Deliver the letter to the police

According to the senders there will be fatal consequences if the recipient does not comply. Among other things one is not allowed to tell anybody about the letter.

The North Sealand police are currently investigating the matter and ask all people who have received the letter to secure it in a plastic cover and deliver it to the nearest police station, where a report will be made.

For a complete listing of previous enrichment news, see The Cultural Enrichment Archives.