FBI arrests Peruvian man for sending bomb threats to school districts
The Department of Justice announced Thursday the arrest of a Peruvian man for emailing bomb threats to synagogues, hospitals, airports and more than 150 school districts, including in Pennsylvania.
Eddie Manuel Nunez Santos, 33, was arrested in Lima, Peru Tuesday. He faces charges of threatening interstate communications, false information and hoaxes, attempted sexual exploitation of a minor and attempted coercion and enticement of a minor.
Santos was charged in federal court in the Southern District of New York.
According to the DOJ, Santos sent a flurry of threats between Sept. 15 and 21 to institutions in Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, Arizona and Alaska.
Neither a press release nor the complaint filled against Nunez specifies which organizations and districts were victims, but locally, Albert-Gallatin, Burgettstown, Fort Cherry, and Avella school districts received threats.
The threats led to the Washington County school districts evacuating students on Sept. 18 and sending them home for the day. Albert Gallatin informed parents the day prior the district received a threat, but found it to not be credible.
In addition to making threats, Nunez is also accused of having inappropriate conversations with juvenile girls and soliciting explicit pictures.
“As alleged, the defendant’s relentless campaign of false bomb threats caused an immediate mobilization by federal and state authorities, diverting critical law enforcement and public safety resources, and caused fear in hundreds of communities across this country,” Damian Williams, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a press release.