18-Year-Old Student Threatens to Blow Up Miami Airport (MIA) After Losing Bitcoin Investment

The Hindustan Times has reported that an unnamed 18-year-old Indian citizen had threatened to blow up Miami, Florida’s international airport (MIA) because an American scammer had allegedly stolen $1,000 in bitcoin (BTC) from him.

The teenager reportedly blamed the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for its “uncooperative stance” as the intelligence and security service failed to help him recover his bitcoins from the US-based fraudster that he “encountered in a chat forum.”

According to local news outlets, the teenager is a resident of the Northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and had called the FBI about 50 times in October regarding the alleged theft.

Meeting Fraudster In Online Chatroom

Presumably after not being satisfied with the law enforcement agency’s response, the class 12 student called Miami Airport and threatened to blow it up. The teenager claimed that a US citizen he met in an online chatroom promised him huge profits if he invested his bitcoins in a promising investment scheme.

Despite the serious nature of the offense, Uttar Pradesh’s director general of police (DGP), OP Singh, said the teenager will not be arrested and his identity will not be disclosed because he is only 18 years old.

Although most countries, including India, consider people 18 years and older to be of legal age – meaning that they may be prosecuted as an adult, it is unclear why Indian authorities did not take the offender into police custody.

However, the teenager has been charged with multiple violations of the Indian Penal Code including “impersonation/issuing threats”, and for making threatening phone calls via the internet to the FBI and Miami international airport’s staff (under India’s IT Act).

Additionally, a first information report (FIR) has been lodged against the accused.

Equipped With “AK-47 Assault Rifle”, “Suicide Belt”, “Grenades”

Notably, a police investigation revealed that the teenager is actually a “bright student” and had made at least 50 phone calls to the FBI between the dates of October 2nd and October 31st. The Indian student also used a fake email account and a fake identity while making the calls, however, local authorities were able to track down the threatening activity.

According to Uttar Pradesh’s police department, the offender had threatened to barge into Miami’s airport with an “AK-47 assault rifle, grenades, and a suicide belt.”

Indian authorities reportedly began investigating the serious threats after the FBI contacted India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) and asked that the caller be tracked down. After locating the teenager, the nation’s anti-terrorism squad learned that the boy’s father had given him $1,000 to invest in bitcoin.