Jail Sentence to New Zealand Businessman

New Zealand is the world’s largest dairy exporter.The dairy industry forms the backbone of its economy.

A New Zealand businessman has been jailed for eight and a half years for threatening to spike baby milk formula with controversial pesticide 1080.

New Zealand businessman, Jeremy Kerr sent anonymous letters containing packets of pesticide-laced milk powder to dairy giant Fonterra and a farming body in November 2014. A judge ruled that Kerr, who owned a company that manufactured an alternative pesticide, had done it knowing that he would benefit financially if 1080 was banned.

Justice Geoffrey Venning said Kerr’s actions had “posed a major threat to trading relationships between New Zealand and other countries,” reported NZ Herald.

The exercise sparked an international scare and cost Fonterra and authorities NZ$37m.