A Peruvian man was arrested Tuesday in Lima on U.S. federal charges accusing him of sending bomb threats to schools in Alaska and to institutions across the country.
Eddie Manuel Nunez Santos, 33, of Lima emailed the threats to more than 150 school districts, synagogues, airports, hospitals and a shopping mall during the last few weeks, according to a sworn complaint unsealed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Twelve Alaska school districts on Sept. 19 received an email “threatening violence in their schools,” according to the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development. The threat prompted evacuations in at least four school districts, including Southeast Island School District in Thorne Bay, Annette Island School District in Metlakatla, Dillingham City School District, and Aleutian Region School District in Atka.
The Anchorage School District received the threat but did not evacuate students because the threat was “broad in nature and lacked specific information,” the district said in a statement the day after the threat.
“After working closely with local, state, and federal law enforcement partners and as a result of the investigation, we were guided that it was unnecessary to disrupt yesterday’s school day,” the statement said.
The Alaska State Troopers said on the day the threats were received that they did not appear credible. Troopers investigated the Alaska threats along with the FBI.
Similar threats were received in New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Arizona, according to the complaint. The threats resulted in evacuations of thousands of schoolchildren, a hospital lockdown and flight delays, it said.
The emailed threats generally claimed there were bombs set to explode “in a few hours” placed throughout the buildings, according to the complaint.
The complaint does not include information about what may have motivated Nunez Santos to send the threats.
The FBI used email, phone and IP address data to determine Nunez Santos had sent the threats, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Southern District of New York.
Nunez Santos also sent bomb threats to a 15-year-old girl in retaliation for her refusal to send him sexually explicit photos, the complaint said.
He was arrested by Peruvian authorities and is facing charges of transmitting threatening interstate communications, conveying false information and hoaxes, attempting to sexually exploit a child, attempting to coerce and entice a minor, and attempting to receive child pornography.