Feds: Former FIT student from UAE found in hotel with ammo

MELBOURNE, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35) - A citizen of the United Arab Emirates who was illegally living in the United States was arrested by federal officials after they found him in a Melbourne hotel with ammunition.

Hamid Mohamed Ahmed Ali Rehaif, 25, remains in federal custody and he is being held at the John E Polk Correctional Facility in Sanford. He is charged with "possession of ammunition by an unlawful or illegal alien."

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, but was terminated as a student in the fall of 2014. When he failed to leave the country within 30 days, he became an unlawful alien.

Federal law enforcement agents on Wednesday made contact with Rehaif at the hotel where he had been living for the last two months, paying more than $11,000 in cash for room fees. Agents said he 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 the hotel room and in a storage unit that he had rented, but they did not locate any firearms, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District Florida.

Rehaif has waived his detention hearing, and will have his preliminary hearing in U.S. District Court in Orlando at 10 a.m. on Monday, before United States Magistrate Judge David A. Baker.