Boston Nuclear Terror Suspect Arrested

Mexican authorities have arrested a man accused of making a false nuclear threat on Boston earlier this year, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, Feb. 23).

Jose Ernesto Beltran Quinonez was arrested Saturday in Mexicali, according to the FBI. Bureau spokeswoman Jan Caldwell said that U.S. authorities expect Beltran to be extradited within 60 days. 

Beltran has been indicted for perpetrating a terrorist hoax and making false statements about a plot to smuggle a nuclear warhead into the United States from Mexico for use in Boston. His call to the California Highway Patrol on Jan. 17 caused subway and airport security increases in Boston.

Beltran later said he had not called in the threat, instead suggesting it came from someone else using his cellular telephone. He was taken into custody by Mexican authorities in January but was released and has been on the run since then (Associated Press/CNN, Oct. 18).

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