It's almost certainly a not a "imma bust a cap in yo ass" threat and more along the lines of a "people higher than you and me in the org chart tacitly condone this behavior and your career is gonna be a dead end if you narc on me" type of threat.
> la procura della Repubblica di Catanzaro scrive nell’inchiesta che una persona molto distinta si presentò nell’ufficio della dipendente minacciandola in modo velato, e facendole capire che la sua incolumità e quella della sua famiglia erano a rischio
“The public prosecutor in Catanzaro writes in the filing that a well-dressed person walked into [the witness’s] office and made veiled threats, suggesting her health and the one of her relatives were at risk.”
Well-dressed man speaking softly of physical violence - clearly the guy wanted to appear connected to the local ‘ndrangheta ras.
[0] https://it.sputniknews.com/italia/2021042010438566-15-anni-d...
Everyone knows threats of "bad things will happen to your career if you do this" outnumber "bad things will physically happen to you" at least 1000:1.
I challenge you (or anyone) to come up with a reason why my assumption was unreasonable using only the information provided by the BBC article submitted.
In several comments throughout here I have described from experience with accuracy how these kinds of phantom employees exist and the nature of the organizations that provide the conditions for them to exist. I get that portraying government as anything but pure unadulterated competency at every level is not ideologically acceptable to many here but unfortunately that is the reality. Nevertheless, even in highly dysfunctional corners physical threats of violence are not the norm.
Do you seriously think that this flew under the radar for 15yr because he made threats? No, it was because the organization was dysfunctional in many ways and his behavior was not far enough out of line to cause problems back when he did it.
I hope you one day inherit management responsibilities in the kind of organization that has this kind of dysfunction sprinkled throughout it.