South African woman's passport prompts federal investigation

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Farida Goolam Mohamed Ahmed, 48, was arrested July 19 at the McAllen airport and charged four days later with illegal entry into the United States, falsifying information and falsifying a passport. She was denied bond on Tuesday by a federal magistrate.

A senior federal law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that investigators were trying to determine whether the woman had ties to terrorists groups. So far nothing has been substantiated, the source said.

Ahmed was arrested as she tried to board a flight for New York and couldn't provide a visa to prove her legal travel within the United States, FBI Special Agent Daniel Delgado said in an affidavit.

Ahmed provided a South African passport that was missing four pages, according to the affidavit. Authorities said she said that her visa was in New York.

Authorities searched Ahmed's bags and found a pair of wet and muddy pants in one and plane tickets and flight schedules in another. Authorities said she later told them she was smuggled into the United States from Mexico by crossing the Rio Grande.

"I did come here illegally, I came through the bush," Ahmed told FBI agents in a voluntary interview on July 21, the affidavit said.

According to the flight itineraries, on July 8 Ahmed traveled from Johannesburg through Duabi and United Arab Emirates and then to London. A July 14 British Airways itinerary showed a trip from London to Mexico City.

Kyle Welch, Ahmed's court-appointed attorney, said his client is not charged with any terrorist activity and does not have a criminal record.

FBI Agent Gary Simmons testified at Ahmed's court hearing that she was carrying about $6,350 in U.S. dollars, along with British currency, one South African Krugerrand gold coin worth about $400 and Mexican pesos.

"She also had phone cards and gambling cards from the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City," Simmons said.

U.S. Rep. Solomon Ortiz of Corpus Christi, the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness, said "very credible" people told him Ahmed has traveled within the United States more than 250 times, and that federal authorities were investigating whether she had ties to terrorists.

The Associated Press reported earlier Tuesday that authorities believed crime syndicates operating within the South African government were believed to be selling illegal passports for as little as $77 apiece.

While it's believed the passports mostly go to poor people hoping to get into Europe or the United States a little easier, the director general of South Africa's Department of Home Affairs said South African passports had been found in the hands of al-Qaida militants and other terrorists traveling through Europe.

Eddie Rios, a spokesman for the U.S. Border Patrol in McAllen, said the agency had not been told that South African passports were being used by terrorists.

The majority of those crossing the border illegally are Mexican, he said, and there hasn't been a noticeable rise of illegal crossers from outside Latin America, he said.

(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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