A Houlton man pleaded guilty Friday to a federal charge of sending death threats to a member of the European Commission, the governing body of the European Union in Belgium.

Dushko Vanelinov Vulchev, 38, was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Bangor to six months in prison, which Judge John Nivison deemed served because Vulchev had remained in custody since his arrest March 29, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Vulchev told an unnamed commissioner from Bulgaria in an email Feb. 5 that he would kill members of the commission if they didn’t carry out his demands that Bulgarians receive jobs in Europe. Vulchev is a native of Bulgaria who is now a U.S. citizen. “I will slit your throats,” Vulchev wrote in one email, and “kill you like chickens,” according to an FBI complaint filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Bangor.

Vulchev used his neighbor’s wireless account to access the Internet and investigators initially focused on the neighbor, but they shifted their attention to Vulchev because the threats were written in Bulgarian, FBI Agent James McCarthy said in an affidavit filed in support of a warrant for Vulchev’s arrest.

Scott Dolan can be contacted at 791-6304 or at:

sdolan@pressherald.com

Twitter: scottddolan


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