Crime & Courts

Kasilof man charged with sending threatening messages to Massachusetts State Police and people in Vermont

This article originally appeared at KDLL.org and is republished here with permission.

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KENAI -- A Kasilof man is charged with sending death threats to people in Vermont and the Massachusetts State Police.

Federal authorities said they arrested 34-year-old Benjamin Tarbell before he was set to fly to Vermont from Kenai Municipal Airport on Sept. 10. Tarbell was attempting to check a rifle, handgun and two knives on his flight, according to a spokesperson with the Department of Justice.

He faces six felony counts of sending threatening interstate communications.

According to a charging document, Tarbell moved from Vermont to Alaska in April and was struggling with a recent divorce.

Tarbell had been sending threatening messages over text and on Instagram to several people in Vermont and other states, with threats escalating in violent tone over the course of a month, according to the charges. The charges also said Tarbell called and threatened to bomb the Massachusetts State Police in early September.

Tarbell had tickets to fly from Kenai to Burlington, Vermont, and was slated to land on Sept. 11. He had mentioned in several of the threatening texts that he would be in Vermont then, according to the charges.

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