USF Students Charged With Having Explosive Near S.C. Navy Station

TAMPA - Two University of South Florida students - charged today with possession of an incendiary device after police found a suspicious item in their car and detonated it over the weekend - have been deemed flight risks in a Berkeley County courthouse today.

Ahmed Abda Sherf Mohamed, 24, is being held on $5000,000 bond and Yousef Samir Megahed, 21, is being held on $300,000 bond. Both men were being held at the Berkeley County jail.

They were ruled flight risks because neither one has family in South Carolina, according to WFLA affiliate WCBD-TV in Charleston, SC..

The students told the judge they were only carrying fireworks, but the prosecutor reiterated that the two students were in possession of pipe bombs and pipe bomb paraphernalia.

"They admitted to having what they said were fireworks. Based on the officer's judgment at hand, based on what he had seen, we judged it to be other than fireworks," Berkeley County Sheriff Wayne DeWitt said.

The sheriff refused to say what items authorities found in the car. He said some items were being analyzed by the FBI.

At a 1:30 p.m. news conference today, USF Spokesman Ken Gullette said Megahed is an undergraduate student and Mohamed is a civil engineering graduate student.

Megahed, left, and Mohamed

Mohamed is originally from Kuwait and completed his undergrad education in Cairo. He has been at USF since January and was registered for six hours during summer session, Gullette said.

Megahed, originally from Egpyt, has been enrolled at USF since 2004 and had not declared a major. He was registered for three hours this fall, Gullette said.

FBI spokeswoman Denise Taiste said no links to terrorism had been found. Taiste would not provide any details about what was found in the vehicle.

"Right now we have a joint investigation going on looking into it further to see if there is any link to terrorism. That's all I really know," Taiste said.

The two men were pulled over for speeding Saturday night, and officers became suspicious when the men couldn't immediately say what they were doing in the area or where they were going, DeWitt said.

Bomb technicians exploded an item found in the car about 2:45 a.m. Sunday. The item made a loud bang, similar to a firecracker, when it was demolished.

Authorities closed a mile-long stretch of U.S. Highway 176 in Goose Creek at about 7 p.m. Saturday, and federal officials said then there was "no immediate threat." It reopened at about 4 a.m. Sunday.

Megahed's family members only heard news of his arrest while watching CNN, Ahmed Bedier, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations said. "They never received a phone call," he said.

A representative of the Council on American-Islamic Relations accompanied family members to South Carolina late Sunday, Bedier said.

Bedier said he has seen reports coming out of South Carolina that the men merely had fireworks in their car. "We need to know what the facts are," he said.

Goose Creek is home to the Naval Weapons Station, which houses the U.S. Naval Consolidated Brig, a military prison where enemy combatants have been held. Suspected al-Qaida operative Jose Padilla was held there for 3 1/2 years before going on trial in Miami.

The car was heading west, away from Goose Creek, when it was pulled over about 7 miles from the sprawling Navy facility, police said.

Goose Creek, with a population of about 30,000, is about 20 miles north of Charleston.

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
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