FOXBORO - Police, acting on the report of a bomb threat at the Patriot Place work site on Monday, wound up arresting a man they learned Tuesday is a fugitive from justice the past six years, who served prison time in Florida as a sexual offender and was deported to his native El Salvador, Chief Edward O'Leary said.

Officers took Rito Panameno into custody Monday following an altercation in which he and a friend allegedly told co-workers at the shopping plaza under construction that they had materials in their truck to "blow everything up," O'Leary said. The suspect would not provide any identification, and officers had no idea who he was, O'Leary said.

Panameno was charged by Foxboro police with "uttering threats," for claiming he had a bomb in his van.

"In this day and age, no one takes threats like that as a prank," O'Leary said of his officers, who called in the bomb squad after locating the suspects' van near Gillette Stadium and had a bomb-sniffing dog check the vehicle to determine that there were no explosive materials inside.

When the suspect was taken to court in Dedham and provided fingerprints, it was found that Panameno, 35, whose current address is listed as School Street in Everett, is a fugitive from justice from Malden District Court since 2002. It was also found that he was convicted as a sex offender in Florida in 1997, served prison time and was deported by the U.S. Department of Immigration, O'Leary said. It is not known when or how he re-entered the United States.

Based on this new information, according to O'Leary, Foxboro police are also charging Panameno with failure to register as a sex offender at his place of work, which at the time was the construction site next to Gillette Stadium.

In addition, O'Leary said, the federal government is now involved in the case to investigate his re-entry into the country after being deported.