Tanzanian Pleads Guilty in Mall Bomb Hoax

A Tanzanian man who claimed in a hoax telephone call that Al Qaeda terrorists were planning to bomb a Westside shopping center has pleaded guilty to federal charges, the U.S. attorney’s office said Tuesday.

Zameer Mohamed, 23, will face a possible 10-year prison term when he is sentenced in February to one count of using a telephone to convey false information about an explosive attack.

The anonymous call was made to the federal Department of Homeland Security in April, triggering the deployment of hundreds of police and federal agents at malls and streets throughout the Westside.

Investigators were able to trace the call to a telephone card used at a Calgary, Canada, hotel. The trail eventually led to Mohamed, who was arrested about a week later when he crossed the Canadian border into Montana.

He allegedly told FBI agents that he made the threat to get back at an ex-girlfriend who owed him money and at three of her friends, whom he also named as members of Al Qaeda.

The caller did not identify the targeted shopping mall, saying only that it was near UCLA and the Federal Building in Westwood. Mohamed apparently knew the area from an earlier visit to Los Angeles.

Richard Garcia, head of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office, said Tuesday that the deployment of large numbers of law enforcement officers, coupled with losses to retail businesses, were conservatively estimated to have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

In addition, he said, the fear of a terrorist attack took a significant emotional toll on Los Angeles residents.

“Mr. Mohamed’s actions caused substantial panic and disruption,” said U.S. Atty. Debra W. Yang, “not to mention a significant and unnecessary diversion of law enforcement resources.”

Mohamed entered his plea Monday, surprising everyone in the courtroom during a routine pretrial hearing, according to the prosecutor’s office.

He has been held without bond since his arrest.