Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has confirmed the truck driver arrested for making a bomb threat on a South Carolina highway this week is a Jordanian national who is illegally present in the U.S., according to reports.
Interstate 85 was shut down for hours on Thursday afternoon after South Carolina State Transport Police pulled over a tractor-trailer with a missing license plate in Greenville County.
During the stop, the driver claimed there was an explosive device hidden somewhere in the big rig, authorities say.
Following a sweep by a bomb squad, it was determined the driver had been lying.
He was taken into custody and identified as Ahmad Jamal Khamees Alhendi, a 28-year-old resident of Oak Lawn, Illinois.
ICE immediately lodged a detainer against Khamees Alhendi with the Greenville County Detention Center, but his immigration status remained unclear as of Friday afternoon.
It has since been revealed that Khamees Alhendi is from the Middle East and is in the U.S. illegally.
“According to ICE, Alhendi, 28, is a Jordanian national who legally entered the United States on Sept. 20, 2018, in St. Paul, Minnesota. Alhendi failed to comply with the terms of his legal admittance and now has a hearing scheduled for Aug. 6, 2026, before an immigration judge,” WYFF reported on Friday night.
Walt Wilkins, 13th Judicial Circuit Solicitor for Greenville, weighed in on the case after reviewing law enforcement footage from the incident.
“There is no evidence that there was any bomb or any incendiary device inside the tractor-trailer, which which begs the question, ‘Why would you say something like that?’” Wilkins told WYFF. “Or, ‘What was the purpose behind that?’ And at this moment, we just have the allegations that he did say it.”
“Somebody who is not here with the proper documentation driving a tractor-trailer truck without proper documentation, those are all signs that can be compounded into a much more serious situation,” he continued. “We’re very fortunate in this situation that it was not.”
South Carolina Solicitor: Jordanian illegal alien made bomb threat that shut down highway. https://t.co/OeiGbDbMD7 pic.twitter.com/er0DPmgaIb
— Illegal Alien Crimes (@ImmigrantCrimes) January 4, 2025
Khamees Alhendi is being held on multiple charges, including breach of peace of a high or aggravated nature, bomb threat, and operating an unregistered vehicle, as well as an ICE detainer.
The truck Alhendi was driving was registered to Globe Transportation out of Illinois. The company has not issued a public statement at the time of this writing, but initially claimed Alhendi was cleared to drive and that the truck was registered, according to Fox Carolina.
This article was originally published at InfoWars.com
