Miami

Man Claimed He Was Terrorist, Threatened to Bomb Avianca Airlines Offices in Doral: Police

Steven Glen Banks, 56, was arrested Thursday on charges including making a false report about a bomb or explosive, criminal mischief, and threatening a law enforcement officer, according to an arrest report.

A Miami man who said he was a terrorist and threatened to bomb the Doral offices of Avianca Airlines over $4,000 he believed the Colombian airline owed him was arrested, police said.

Steven Glen Banks, 56, was arrested Thursday on charges including making a false report about a bomb or explosive, criminal mischief, and threatening a law enforcement officer, according to an arrest report.

The report said Banks went to the offices of the airlines on Northwest 53rd Street where he demanded the $4,000 he believed was owed to him by the airline. He was given paperwork to make a claim and directed to speak with management.

Banks left the office and went into a restroom, where he confronted an airline employee and demanded the money, the report said. When the employee told him he didn't know what he was talking about, Banks said he was going to place bombs in the building and the airline's planes, the report said.

Banks then went back into the airline's offices and told management he was a terrorist, the report said.

After Banks was taken into custody, he was questioned by a Doral Police officer and FBI agent, and told them he was a terrorist who had planted bombs throughout the United States and in South American countries, the report said.

Banks said "he was an expert in C4 explosives and has destroyed many lives," the report said. He also told a Doral officer he would "skin you alive and gut you from head to toe," the report said.

Banks appeared in court Friday where he was ordered held on $75,000 bond. He pleaded for a lower bond and said his constitutional rights were being violated.

"I'm angry, I'm very very angry," Banks told Miami-Dade Judge Mindy Glazer.

"There's a lot of people in the world who are angry but they express it in different ways," Glazer responded.

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