East Coast Terror Hoax Suspect Sent West

Jose Ernesto Beltran Quinonez, a Mexican accused of concocting a tall tale involving a nuclear attack on Boston, has been extradited to San Diego, the Associated Press reports.

Quinonez pleaded not guilty to federal charges accusing him of disseminating false information about a terror attack and lying to federal officials, the AP said.  He could be sentenced to up to eight years in prison.

In January 2005, the man allegedly phoned in a report to the California Highway Patrol saying that a warhead would be brought into the U.S, and that he had smuggled a number of Chinese chemists and Iraqis into the country to put the weapon to use in Boston.

The man’s alleged lies resulted in federal warnings, a large-scale investigation, Presidential discussions and nationwide manhunt for the group of Chinese suspects Quinonez implicated.

“What a huge waste of resources,” Dan Dzwilewski, head of the San Diego FBI office, told the AP.  “It took hundreds and hundreds of man-hours here and across the country.  The threat that he laid out had to be taken seriously until it was validated or discredited.”

On Saturday, Quinonez was arrested in Mexicali, a Mexican city about 120 miles east of San Diego, and was turned over to the FBI on Sunday, Dzwilewski told the AP.

Quinonez’s bail hearing has been set for Wednesday.

For updated news coverage, don’t forget to check in at our CSO Security Feed page.