Undocumented Middle Eastern man sentenced on gun charges in Florida

A United Arab Emirates citizen who lived in Melbourne and was in the U.S. illegally was sentenced to federal prison on firearms charges.

And after Hamid Mohamed Ahmed Ali Rehaif serves 18 months in prison, he will be deported back to the United Arab Emirates, authorities said.

A federal jury in May found Rehaif guilty of possessing a firearm and ammunition as an undocumented immigrant  and U.S. District Judge John Antoon II sentenced him, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Florida stated in a news release Monday.

Rehaif was admitted into the U.S. in 2013 under a student visa to attend the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, court records showed. After completing three semesters at the school, he was academically dismissed in December 2014.

Because of that, Rehaif became an undocumented immigrant  when he failed to immediately depart the U.S. During that time, Rehaif possessed firearms and ammunition at a local shooting range in Melbourne. He also provided ammunition to two hotel employees as “gifts,” U.S attorneys reported. At the sentencing hearing, the court found that Rehaif had illegally purchased three other firearms.

Law enforcement agents say they originally made contact with Rehaif in December 2015 at a hotel in Melbourne where he had been living for two months. Rehaif stayed at the hotel for 53 straight days and paid more than $11,000 in room fees, court records showed. Law enforcement found rounds of handgun and rifle ammunition in his hotel room and in a storage unit that Rehaif had rented, but did not locate any firearms.

The case was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations and the FBI, and the Melbourne Police Department. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Shawn P. Napier and Special Assistant United States Attorney Christina R. Downes.