Mystery at Goose Creek update: Suspects headed back to Tampa
Reader Lynne S. flags breaking news about the Goose Creek Two:
Two University of South Florida students who are facing federal explosives charges after an arrest a month ago will be returned to Tampa, attorneys said after a sudden hearing today in federal court.
Attorneys for both men say their clients, Youssef Megahed and Ahmed Mohamed, are pleased to be returning to Tampa, where they were living while attending USF. “They’ll be happy to get back,” said Lionel Lofton, attorney for Mohamed.
Neither Lofton nor Andy Savage, attorney for Megahed, knew when the men might be returned in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service. However, in court Thursday, instead of the usual jailhouse uniforms, both men were wearing street clothes. Mohamed was wearing the clothes he was arrested in, Lofton said, a knee-length bathing suit and a dirty T-shirt. Megahed was wearing clothes that his attorney, Savage, said did not appear to be his and were mismatched.
The initial appearance hearing took about five minutes. Defense attorneys “waived identity,” the only legal issue scheduled to be presented today. That means both defense attorneys agree that their clients are the people named in the indictment and it sets in motion the process to bring the two to Tampa.
The next court proceeding for the men likely will be a detention hearing that has been requested by the government, which wants to hold the men without bail. It will take place in Tampa, the attorneys said, but no time or date was set. The timeframe is dependent on when the men are transported by the U.S. Marshal’s Service. For security reasons, they have not told the defense attorneys how or when they will be taken.
Curiouser and curiouser.
Dan Riehl notes a new detail not previously reported. The suspects had ammo:
Bullets were among the items investigators found in the car of two University of South Florida students.
The deputy who pulled over Ahmed Abdellatif Sherif Mohamed and Youssef Samir Megahed, 21, found a box of bullets near the seat, several pipe bombs in the trunk and “other suspicious items,” according to the Berkeley County Sheriff’s Office.
From fireworks to no fireworks, from no terror to terror charges, and now a box of bullets. The St. Pete Times opines: “The new information only deepened the mystery of why the two engineering students ended up on Aug. 4 in Goose Creek, S.C., a suburban city near Charleston.”
One last item of note: As I blogged earlier, Egyptian officials did meet with the family. They are denying the IPT’s report that one of the suspects had a past criminal history.
FWIW.
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Categories: Goose Creek
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Try ‘em and fry ‘em.
Bear1909,
Gotta love your maintaining “innocent before proven guilty” stance there. Care to comment on some LAX rapists?
Why do I feel there’s a story in the making here involving jumped bail and missing passports?
I do believe he said try-em first….
Yes, I did. What’s your point, Jeff?
Try ‘em and fry ‘em.
With ya bear! A dead offender is a non-repeat offender!
Make em drink the bears magic potion that might do the trick and save the electricity.
Jeff - in the case of the LAX rape issue - there was no suspicious evidence. Only an unreliable lone witness / victim.
No DNA, no nothing. Contradicting stories every other week.
This is a bit different.
You tell me why two Eqyptian students in Florida would have explosive materials and ammunition in their vehicle?
Sounds pretty damning to me.
aj- to the uninitiated it can be a moving experience
i’m also hoping that these two get interrogated thoroughly. they don’t appear to be the sharpest tools in the drawer, although they are most certainly tools.
wonder who’s behind the curtain on this one.
let’s fry the bigger fish too.
lol bear and I know which part would move on me.
just teasing I used to be into alot of that.
Guess that answers the age-old question, “Does a bear ____ in the woods?”
I forgot to mention the Naval Base part - absolutely true, aj.
‘Bout time for me to get outta dodge here, folks.
It’s been fun. Enjoy your evenings.
You may have to send them to Germany for that. No ACLU presence there so we will not have to give them a team of laywers to make sure they are water boearded in a humane way.
/sarc off
The attorney for these guys is a local hotshot who is planning on getting a low bond from the federal judge in Tampa. Let’s pray that doesn’t work. If it does, these 2 will be MIA along with Hilary’s Hsu.
Hope the feds can dig up some more intel from these guys especially now that we’re about a week away from 9/11.
Try em & Fry em right alongside the grouper. What a great cookout that would be.
Take those passports. The jail will be having pork tonight. Yea!
Well stated Leatherneck.
I bet the good ole boys in the Berkeley County jail are going to miss these two. South Carolina has some fine upstanding clientele in the local population.
Are the feds going to get to try these guys first and then they will face the SoCar charges form the speeding and such? …
Geez who knows dl with all the bizarro world bullcrap going on today I’m surprised they arent back a Muslim U. I wonder when the last time it was they were even on campus? and who their buds are?
DesertLover…
I just read in the local paper that the SC charges have been dropped in lieu of the federal prosecution. So, as I understand the law, the state charges are null and void. These two are finished with the state of SC.
Now, since the state charges were dismissed without prejudice it is still possible that they could be reinstated. I guess we’ll have to see how the federal prosecution goes.
I looked over the affadavit for the search warant and I think they have a pretty good case.
trinitytim
Thanks for that update … just getting going this morning and hadn’t seen it until now …
Isn’t it great how we can all share what we uncover about everything going on by posting what we find out for others to see here on MM’s site …
Thanks Michelle and thanks to all that make this a fun and informative place to spend time every day …
Once again, the SPT is clueless. They keep calling me to renew my subscription and I keep asking them if they have replaced their entire editorial board. I give them the same answer they give me. “NO!”
Here’s what I’d like to see:
Every possible charge leveled against these still-presumed-innocent cretins. Pile them on if they apply.
Non-citizens in possession of bullets? If that’s a Federal Offense, lay it on them.
Pipe bombs? Have at it.
Conspiracy? Bon Appetit.
Transporting infernal devices across state lines? Pile it on - a count for every device.
Homeland Security Violations, Visa issues, doing so much as 3 MPH over the speed limit? Use the air-nailer when you nail these guys, it’s faster…
But if there is one thing we absolutely have to make crystal clear to EVERY non-citizen here: WE WON’T BE TOYED WITH.
Terrorists go to Gitmo. Forever.
Non-Terrorists go to Leavenworth before getting their Greyhound to the border, if they’re still alive after their consecutive sentences are served.
Enough.