Saturday, March 20, 2004
Man held for impersonating Secret Service agent at Ontario Airport . The Associated Press ONTARIO, Calif. – A man who claimed to be a Secret Service agent is in federal custody following an attempt to enter a restricted area at Ontario International Airport.
Mostafa Mansoori, 20, of Rancho Cucamonga has been charged by federal prosecutors with making false statements and attempting entry to a secure airport area by false pretenses.
Mansoori was detained by airport police on March 15, then turned over to the Secret Service.
He tried to drive his 2003 blue Honda Civic through a gate at the airport after police officers used a security identification card to enter before him, court documents show. The gate closed before he was able to drive through.
Confronted by a guard, Mansoori claimed he was on the security detail for President Bush and was attempting to catch a jet at the facility.
He produced only a California driver’s license and an alien registration card. He was wearing a black suit with pilot’s wings and sunglasses, court documents said. Two days before that arrest, Mansoori was cited for trespassing on a naval air station in Imperial County.
Federal prosecutors are evaluating Mansoori for competence. He is being held without bail at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles.
A decision on whether he will be prosecuted will take several weeks, according to Sheri Pym, an assistant U.S. attorney in Riverside.
“We’ll look at everything,” Pym told the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin. “We just need to find out all of the circumstances before we make a decision.”
Mansoori, a part-time student at Chaffey College in Rancho Cucamonga, was also interviewed by the FBI in May 2003 when he attempted to gain access to a restricted rooftop of the Stratosphere Hotel in Las Vegas. He had a scanner. ##
