Strawberry saboteur is caught: Boy is arrested ‘after admitting putting needles in fruit’ 

A young boy has been arrested after admitting he put needles in strawberries as a ‘prank’.

NSW detectives announced the arrest of the young boy on Wednesday afternoon, after earlier revealing the contamination crisis across the country being entirely the work of copycats and pranksters.

Acting Assistant Commissioner Stuart Smith said the arrest had been made in the past few days.

‘Obviously in the last few days we found a young person has admitted to a prank, including putting needles in strawberries,’ Mr Smith said.

While announcing the arrest to the media, Mr Smith said all offenders would ‘feel the full weight of the law’, Seven News reported.

Current state legislation says any NSW offenders will spend a maximum of 10 years in prison.

However, Mr Smith says the young boy will now be dealt with under the ‘youth cautioning system’.

The penalty for contaminating fruit were announced to be raised earlier on Wednesday, taking into account the saboteur’s intent to cause harm.

It was also reported Federal Police were following as many as 100 leads, many of which anticipated to be copycats or hoaxes.