Los Angeles, May 5 (Reuters): The FBI has said it had arrested a man who phoned in an anonymous threat to attack Los Angeles shopping malls last week in a hoax apparently aimed at getting an old girlfriend into trouble.

Tanzanian national, Zameer Mohamed, 23, was charged in a criminal complaint filed in Los Angeles with making false statements to Homeland Security officials about a purported threat to attack a shopping mall.

In an affidavit supporting the complaint, an FBI investigator said Mohamed told the Homeland Security terrorist tip line that his former girlfriend and three other people were planning to enter the US from Canada to carry out an explosive attack in Los Angeles.

But the call was a hoax and neither Mohamed nor the four people had any connection with any known terror group. “He had told the department of Homeland Security their names because he wanted to cause them problems and go to jail,” the FBI affidavit said.

Mohamed, who was arrested in Montana last week after trying to cross into the US illegally from Canada, was quoted as telling FBI investigators that he particularly wanted retribution against a former girlfriend who he said declined to return $4,000 she was holding for him in a bank account.

Additional police were called in to patrol shopping malls in the the Westside area of Los Angeles last Thursday after authorities received the anonymous phone call. Police made the threat public saying they were acting out of an abundance of caution even though it was uncorroborated. Malls remained open but reported a drop in business.

“Anybody who tries to utilise a federal agency to do a hoax for their own personal gain is going to be found, arrested and prosecuted,” Richard Garcia, assistant director for the FBI in Los Angeles told a news conference.