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A Peruvian national allegedly made bomb threats to schools in Pennsylvania and several other states as retaliation against teenage girls in the U.S. who refused to send him nude images.
According to federal prosecutors, Eddie Manuel Nunez Santos, 33, of Lima, Peru, faces a lengthy list of charges that potentially could result in decades behind bars following hoaxes against school districts, synagogues, airports, hospitals, and a shopping mall stretching from the East Coast to Alaska. The threats, which were made between Sept. 15 and 21, led to lockdowns, dismissals, evacuations and flight delays.
Multiple districts in Northeastern Pennsylvania were affected, including Crestwood, Lake-Lehman, Wilkes-Barre Area, Wyoming Area, the Scranton School District, Hanover Area and Dallas, as well as the Hazleton location of Lackawanna College and Lehigh Valley Hospital – Hazleton.
Nunez Santos, also known as “Lucas,” allegedly sent taunting messages with the threats after juvenile girls rebuffed his demands for explicit images. Investigators say he is a website developer, and the contact took place over different platforms, including messaging services and a gaming site.
“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,” said Damian Williams, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
“The defendant allegedly engaged in this reprehensible and socially destructive conduct in a twisted attempt to retaliate against teenage girls who refused his requests for nude and sexually explicit photographs,” Williams said.
According to investigators, Nunez Santos sent the following message to an estimated 24 districts in Pennsylvania: “I placed multiple bombs in all of the schools from your School Districts. The bombs will blow up in a few hours. I’ll gladly smile when your families are crying because of your deaths.”
“As a result of just one of Nunez Santos’ bomb threats, sent on September 19, 2023, more than 1,100 schoolchildren across approximately 20 different schools were evacuated in Pennsylvania,” prosecutors say.
Reports started Sept. 15
According to the complaint filed against Nunez Santos in Manhattan federal court:
On Sept. 15, the FBI began receiving reports of bomb threats, sent primarily via email or online contact forms, to various institutions located across New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Arizona and Alaska.
Through its investigation, including the examination of email, phone and Internet Protocol (“IP”) address data, the FBI was able to determine that Nunez Santos was responsible for the threats.
His threats included references to particular phone numbers or particular IP addresses and a directive for the targeted institutions receiving the threats to contact those numbers or that IP address.
The FBI determined that those numbers and IP addresses were connected with minor females, including a 17-year-old girl residing in Pennsylvania, a 13-year-old girl residing in Pennsylvania, and a 15-year-old girl residing in New York.
“Each of those girls had engaged in online communications with Nunez Santos, who used the alias ‘Lucas’ and represented himself to be 15 years old, and in those communications, Nunez Santos repeatedly asked at least two of the girls to send him nude photographs of themselves,” the affidavit states.
The complaint describes lewd suggestions Nunez Santos allegedly made to the girls regarding what he wanted to see, despite being aware of their ages.
“When the girls refused his requests or cut off communications with him, Nunez Santos threatened to bomb their schools or kill them, and he sent the aforementioned bomb threats to schools in their areas with directives for the targeted institutions to contact the girls.”
Charges detailed
Nunez Santos is charged with:
• transmitting threatening interstate communications, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison;
• conveying false information and hoaxes, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison;
• attempting to sexually exploit a child, which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in prison and a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison;
• attempting to coerce and entice a minor, which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison and a maximum sentence of life in prison;
• attempting to receive child pornography, which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison and a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
Any sentencing ultimately would be determined by a judge, prosecutors note.
Nunez Santos was arrested Tuesday in Lima by Peruvian authorities.
FBI statement
FBI Assistant Director in Charge James Smith said: “Not only did Santos allegedly email hundreds of hoax bomb threats terrorizing schools, hospitals and houses of worship, he also perversely tried to sextort innocent teenage girls. His actions wasted limited law enforcement resources, put first responders in unnecessary danger and victimized children. The FBI will not tolerate anyone who seeks to induce fear in our communities, and we will do whatever it takes to put the perpetrators of such actions behind bars, regardless of their location.”
The investigation was international in scope, including the FBI’s New York Joint Terrorism Task Force, which consists of investigators and analysts from the FBI, the New York City Police Department, and over 50 other federal, state, and local agencies. Mr. Williams also thanked the FBI’s New York (Westchester Resident Agency), Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Sacramento, Anchorage, Phoenix, New Haven, Buffalo, and Albany Field Offices; the FBI’s Legal Attaché office in Peru; the Department of Justice’s National Security Division, Counterterrorism Section; the Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs; and Peruvian law enforcement authorities for their assistance.
This case is being handled by the Office’s National Security and International Narcotics Unit. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Bodansky is in charge of the prosecution, with assistance from Trial Attorney James Donnelly of the Counterterrorism Section.