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Police, Rangers arrest UTB student for bomb threat
Posted: 09.16.2012 at 9:53 PM
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It did not take police long to track down the Harlingen student claiming to own a bomb and use it next time he went to class at the University of Texas at Brownsville.

"We identified who the suspect was, where the location was he might've been calling from and then trying to verify all that information," UTB Police Chief John Cardoza said.

The student placed a call to a crisis hotline Sunday morning at 2 a.m. announcing his intention.

By 8 a.m., they had set up surveillance at the man's apartment along Morgan Blvd in Harlingen.

Six hours later, nearly a dozen Texas Rangers and UT Police, dressed in full swat gear, went in after him.

"The person is being charged with, it's called a terroristic threat because he did make a threat that he had a bomb and he was going to incinerate it," Chief Cardoza added.

This was only the second bomb threat in his 20 years at the helm of the university police, he said, and would not take it lightly.

"The safety is my number priority for especially our community, which is our students," he concluded.

Chief Cardoza added that the successful operation also showed the cooperation between various law enforcement groups.

In addition to his department and the Texas Rangers, Harlingen Police and the Brownsville Police bomb squad helped out.

After searching the apartment, officers were unable to find explosives inside the student’s apartment, according to Chief Cardoza.

The student was transported to the Carrizales-Rucker Detention Center where he will await his arraignment Monday morning.

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