Suspect Charged in Mall Threat

A man suspected of being the anonymous caller who warned of a terrorist attack on a Westside shopping mall last week was charged Tuesday with making false statements as officials declared the incident a hoax.

Zameer Mohamed, 23, a citizen of Tanzania who once lived in the Los Angeles area, was taken into custody Thursday as he crossed from Canada into Montana. The arrest came six days after he allegedly made an anonymous call to the Department of Homeland Security, said Richard T. Garcia, assistant FBI director in charge of the Los Angeles office. The warning triggered a security alert.

Mohamed told authorities he picked Los Angeles at random, officials said. He faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

Mohamed told FBI agents he made up the allegations in part to get back at his girlfriend and three of her friends, whom he had named in the April 23 telephone call as members of an Al Qaeda terrorist cell, authorities said.

The call from a Calgary hotel led Los Angeles police last week to warn of a potential terrorist attack. The caller told authorities the group planned to enter the United States from Canada and use explosives to blow up a shopping mall near the Federal Building and UCLA in Westwood on Thursday, according to federal court papers.

“Anyone who tries to utilize a federal agency to perpetrate a hoax is going to be arrested and prosecuted,” Garcia said after a criminal complaint was filed Tuesday.

Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton, speaking at a news conference with Garcia, said the alert was issued because the threat was unusual due to its specificity about the target, the perpetrators and the date.

According to an affidavit by FBI Special Agent Michael Hess, Mohamed made a call to Homeland Security in Washington, D.C., using the name Al, saying he was previously associated with an Al Qaeda cell.

FBI agents traced the call to a phone card, and its provider gave agents records showing the call came from a Calgary hotel. Comfort Inn officials told agents a man named Samier Hussein had used Room 308, where the call originated. Hussein was an alias Mohamed had used in Texas, where he was investigated last year for theft, the affidavit stated.

Authorities investigated the four people Mohamed named and determined none had terrorist ties. No arrests were made.

Mohamed was arrested Thursday as he crossed from Canada into Montana. He has admitted entering the United States illegally on prior occasions, according to the affidavit.

He told agents he wanted “retribution” against his girlfriend, a former co-worker at a Toronto bank who Mohamed said had stolen his paycheck, authorities said. The three others had declined his request to help him reclaim the funds, he told agents.

He reportedly said he chose Los Angeles only because he was familiar with the Federal Building from an earlier trip to the UCLA law library.