YPSILANTI, Mich. – An Ypsilanti man faces federal charges after being detained before he was due to fly to the Middle East with his family after weapons without serial numbers have been found in a storage unit in Ann Arbor.
Yousef Mohammad Ramadan, 28, is charged with possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number, which had moved in interstate commerce. The complaint was filed by an agent with the FBI’s counterterrorism team, but Ramadan has not been charged with a terror-related crime.
According to the complaint filed in criminal court, Ramadan was departing for Jordan on Aug. 15 with his wife and children when he was stopped by U.S. Customs and Border protection officers and interviewed. He told authorities the entire family was relocating to Bethlehem.
Ramadan allegedly told officers he owned two rifles and a Glock handgun, which were put in a storage unit, but officers said he later recanted and said he gave the firearms to a friend.
Agents later identified a storage unit in Ann Arbor believed to have been used by Ramadan, and a search warrant was executed on Aug. 23. The complaint says the unit was in Ramadan’s wife’s name. False information was allegedly filed in the rental agreement to hide Ramadan’s affiliation with the storage unit, FBI officials said.
Agents found two rifles and a Kimber Covert Pro II handgun in the storage unit, which were registered in Ramadan’s name, as well as an upper receiver and other components of an AR-15 rifle.
Two pistols, a Jennings J-22 silver plated handgun and a Ruger Mk. II .22 caliber handgun, were found with the serial numbers scratched off, according to the complaint. Neither handgun was manufactured in Michigan, according to kFBI officials
Ramadan was arraigned over the weekend and was ordered held until a detention hearing Tuesday. He and his family lived in the Willow Ridge Apartments in Ypsilanti up until three weeks ago and spent much of the last decade in California.
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