Orlando, Florida- United States Attorney A. Lee Bentley, III announces the arrest and filing of a criminal complaint charging Hamid Mohamed Ahmed Ali Rehaif (25, Melbourne, and a citizen of the United Arab Emirates) with possession of ammunition by an unlawful or illegal alien. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in federal prison.
According to the complaint, Rehaif was admitted into the United States in 2013 under a student visa. He had been enrolled at the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Florida, but was terminated as a student in the fall of 2014. When Rehaif failed to leave the country within 30 days of his termination as a student, he became an unlawful alien. Yesterday, law enforcement agents made contact with Rehaif at a hotel in Melbourne, where he had been living for the last two months, paying more than $11,000 in cash for room fees. Rehaif admitted to possessing several firearms, but said that he had recently sold or disposed of them. He also admitted to firing those weapons at two local gun ranges. 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.
A complaint is merely a formal charge that a defendant has committed a violation of one or more federal criminal laws, and every defendant is presumed innocent unless, and until, proven guilty.
This case was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It will be prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Bruce S. Ambrose.
UPDATE: Hamid Mohamed Ahmed Ali Rehaif is currently in federal custody. He has waived his detention hearing, and will have his preliminary hearing in U.S. District Court in Orlando at 10 AM on Monday, Dec. 14, 2015, before United States Magistrate Judge David Baker.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
