Nationwide wave of bomb threats hits New Mexico

Locations in Santa Fe, ABQ, Lovington targeted

SANTA FE — New Mexico was not spared from a nationwide bomb threat scheme Thursday.

Threats by phone or email to businesses in several New Mexico cities, including Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Lovington, as well as a transit service in northern New Mexico that had to evacuate buses, disrupted daily activities for scores of people.

Albuquerque police confirmed the Hyatt Hotel downtown was one of the many places where officers investigated bomb threats.,

The Santa Fe Police Department responded to threats that were called in to three locations: the Target store on Zafarano Drive, a building housing retail shops on the downtown Plaza and a law firm on Old Pecos Trail. All three locations were evacuated and searched for suspicious items. None were found.

Like some threats reported in other states and in Lovington, two of the threatening messages in Santa Fe demanded payment in Bitcoin cryptocurrency to head off explosions, SFPD spokesman Greg Gurule said.

Three locations in Lovington also received threats, including the Nor-lea Hospital District, where the threat came in through numerous email accounts, according to a news release. Lovington police said the emails demanded that $20,000 be paid in Bitcoin by nightfall; otherwise a “mercenary” would detonate a bomb that had already been planted.

As a precaution, patients and all nonessential hospital personnel were evacuated and police conducted a sweep of the building. The Lovington School Clinic was also evacuated and searched.

About 20 of the “blue buses” operated by the North Central Regional Transit District were evacuated and several roads were temporarily closed due to a bomb threat called into the dispatch center. The transit district, which is based in Española, serves much of northern New Mexico, including the Santa Fe area.

An NCRTD spokesman said a male caller made the threat shortly after 11 a.m., prompting a temporary halt to the bus service.

The Washington Post reported that law enforcement authorities across the country were responding to bomb threats, though some officials were quick to say that the threats were not believed to be credible. They appeared to stretch from coast to coast, prompting investigations on colleges campuses in Washington state and Pennsylvania and spreading across cities such as New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago and San Francisco.

“We are aware of the recent bomb threats made in cities around the country, and we remain in touch with our law enforcement partners to provide assistance,” the FBI’s Albuquerque office said in a statement. “As always, we encourage the public to remain vigilant and to promptly report suspicious activities which could represent a threat to public safety.”