Source: New Zealand Police
Attribute to Southland Area Commander, Inspector Mike Bowman:
Police investigating a series of bomb threats sent to organisations around New Zealand have arrested a young person in Invercargill.
Acting on information gathered by Auckland-based detectives, Southland Police executed a search warrant at a residential address in Invercargill yesterday afternoon.
A teenaged boy was taken into custody without incident.
He has been charged with two counts of threatening to kill/do grievous bodily harm and will appear in the Invercargill Youth Court today.
Enquiries are ongoing, and further charges may be considered as the investigation progresses.
Operation Irena is an ongoing investigation into recent email threats made to institutions initially in Auckland and then to organisations across the country.
I want to reassure the community that no items of concern or explosive materials were found as part of the search yesterday.
Initial indications suggest the young person had no capability to follow through on the threats.
Regardless, threats of this nature are taken extremely seriously, and yesterday’s swift action by Police reflects this.
As the case is before the Youth Court, Police are unable to comment further.
ENDS.
Issued by Police Media Centre.
Original source: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/05/26/operation-irena-arrest-made-following-threatening-emails/