Thread: Man in nuclear-terror hoax held in Mexicali (update)

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Man in nuclear-terror hoax held in Mexicali


UNION-TRIBUNE BREAKING NEWS TEAM

12:57 p.m. October 17, 2005

SAN DIEGO – A Mexican national accused of concocting a phony terrorist threat against the United States involving a nuclear warhead is in Mexican custody after being arrested at the request of the U.S. government, the FBI announced Monday.
Jose Ernesto Beltran Quinonez was arrested in Mexicali early Saturday morning in Mexicali on a provisional U.S. arrest warrant issued in May.

The indictment stemmed from a series of 911 calls made from a cellular telephone alleging that a nuclear warhead was going to be smuggled by illegal Iraqi and Chinese immigrants into the United States through a tunnel under the U.S.-Mexico border at Mexicali. The caller claimed that Boston was the warhead's final destination.

Authorities said the caller promised to back up his claim by throwing a packet of documents over the fence at the border. Beltran's fingerprints were found on that package. The threat was found to be unfounded.

"This unnecessary series of events took precious resources away from legitimate investigations," Daniel Dzwilewski, the top FBI agent in San Diego, said in a prepared statement. "We are pleased with the international law enforcement alliance demonstrated in this investigation and trust anyone else contemplating such hoaxes will think twice."

http://www.signonsandiego.com

Man pleads guilty in nuclear weapon smuggling hoax

By Onell R. Soto
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
May 8, 2006

A Mexican man who caused a national security scare 1½ years ago with a false story that a nuclear bomb was being smuggled through Mexicali for detonation in Boston pleaded guilty in federal court Friday.

José Ernesto Beltran Quiñonez, 34, cried during an hour-long hearing in which he said that when he made up the story, he was high on methamphetamine and trying to cause trouble for his former employers, who were human smugglers.

Before his claims were disproved, it prompted a massive investigation and national manhunt, and was a topic at President Bush's security briefing.

Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts was forced to skip Bush's inauguration because of the incident.

In February, a federal prosecutor said Beltran may be the first person charged under a 2004 law making it illegal to pass on false information about a terrorist attack, the charge to which he pleaded guilty Friday.

As part of a plea agreement, prosecutors dropped charges that Beltran lied to federal officials.

He faces up to five years in federal prison at a sentencing scheduled for Aug. 15 before U.S. District Judge Barry Ted Moskowitz, but the actual sentence may be closer to two years if the judge follows the recommendations of prosecutors and defense lawyers.

In halting answers to questions as his family looked on, Beltran admitted he called the El Centro office of the California Highway Patrol in January 2005 and said he had smuggled two Iraqi men and four Chinese chemists who were waiting for a nuclear warhead to be smuggled through a tunnel.

He also admitted he threw a plastic bag over the border fence containing Chinese money, travel documents and photos of people he said were involved in the scheme.

In court documents filed earlier, authorities said Beltran threw the bag over the fence in an attempt to prove his story to them.

Investigators determined the Chinese people identified in the documents were farmers.

Beltran was arrested in Mexico in February and brought to San Diego after waiving extradition.

He initially was detained and interviewed by Mexican officials shortly after he first made the false statements. He was released because Mexican officials didn't have enough evidence to charge him.





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Onell Soto: (619) 293-1280; onell.soto@uniontrib.com