Middle Eastern Security Breach At Major Seaport

A judge dropped all charges against three Middle Eastern men who created a terrorism scare at one of the nation’s busiest seaports by resisting officers and trespassing when they could not produce paperwork for the cargo in their truck.

The security breach happened Sunday at South Florida’s Port of Miami, the world’s top cruise ship terminal (nearly 4 million passengers a year) and one of the country’s busiest cargo ports with about one million containers annually. A port security officer became suspicious because the truck’s driver, Amar Al Hadad, could not produce proper paperwork during a routine inspection to enter the port.

The driver also lied to officers when he told them he was alone in the truck yet two other men, Hassan el Sayed and Hussain al Hadad, were hiding in the back. When security officers discovered the others they rightfully became suspicious and contacted federal authorities. The three Middle Eastern men, all in their 20s, proceeded to resist the officers and tried to illegally slip into the port. Both al Hadad men are from Iraq and el Sayed is from Lebanon.

Although they sparked a terrorism scare by resisting and lying to, both local and federal authorities, the three Middle Easterners were released from jail early today and will not be charged.