An illegal immigrant from the United Arab Emirates is facing charges in Florida for illegally possessing ammunition, the U.S. United States Attorney for the Middle District of Florida A. Lee Bentley, III revealed Thursday.
According to a complaint, 25-year-old Hamid Mohamed Ahmed Ali Rehaif had been living at a hotel in Melbourne for 53 days, checking out each morning and checking back into the hotel each evening. He further had paid over $11,000 in cash for room fees.
Rehaif admitted to investigators that he had several firearms in his possession, and had fired them at two local gun ranges, but claimed he’d recently sold or disposed of the weapons.
“Agents located rounds of handgun and rifle ammunition in his hotel room and in a storage unit that he had rented, but they did not locate any firearms,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office explained in a release.
The complaint notes that Rehaif was admitted to the U.S. on a student visa in 2013. He was enrolled at the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Florida but was dismissed in the fall of last year. He failed to leave the country within 30 days of the end of his student status. By failing to leave Rehaif became an illegal immigrant.
He has been charged with possession of ammunition by an unlawful or illegal alien, a penalty that carried up to 10 years in federal prison.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations and the Federal Bureau of Investigation investigated the case and it will be prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Bruce S. Ambrose.
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