PORT MARIA, St Mary — Superintendent of police in charge of St Mary, Bobbette Morgan-Simpson says strong leads are being followed to apprehend those responsible for a recent bomb threat in the parish.

She has also warned of the stiff penalties perpetrators will face.

There is speculation that a student may be behind the hoax that temporarily disrupted exams being done that day, however that theory has not been confirmed.

“You will be charged $4 million and [jail] time not exceeding four years,” warned Superintendent Morgan-Simpson.

The police officer was giving an update during Thursday’s monthly meeting of the St Mary Municipal Corporation.

She outlined that, in a voice note circulating on June 4, the principal of St Mary High School was told to pay $40 million by 7:00 am the next day or a bomb planted at the school would explode.

Students and teachers awoke to a text message from the principal urging students not sitting CXC exams to remain home due to an emergency at the school. The St Mary police, the bomb squad, and the Jamaica Defence Force were called in but no bomb was found on the school compound.

This disruption at the St Mary school came a day after a bomb threat in Ocho Rios. The perpetrator of that incident was nabbed in St Catherine. The man, who claimed responsibility for the threat via social media platform TikTok, said it was a prank he cooked up as he is an up-and-coming artiste who was seeking publicity.

Commenting on that incident, Fitz Bailey, the deputy commissioner of police in charge of crime and security, said the police took the threat seriously and deployed a “significant amount of resources” — including personnel from the Jamaica Fire Brigade and Jamaica Defence Force — in response.

Bailey stressed that the action of the individual, who was arrested Monday, was not a mere prank but public mischief that caused the business place where the threat was received to close its doors as the security forces carried out their investigations.

“Think about the cost for the country when you have so many resources being deployed [to respond to a prank] where they could be attending to real emergencies [instead],” Bailey said.