(Chicago television station WMAQ posted the following article on its website on March 24.)
CHICAGO — Federal agents on Monday located a Jordanian air marshal on an Amtrak train en route to Florida two days after he failed to leave the United States during his scheduled departure from Chicago over the weekend.
Agents were speaking with Ali Alimora, 30, following his arrest, FBI spokeswoman Carrie McCune said.
He was arrested early Monday afternoon on an Amtrak train en route to Miami, she said. McCune could not immediately provide where or an exact time when he was arrested or other details about the arrest.
Alimora, a Jordanian citizen, was headed to Jacksonville, Fla., but McCune could not say why.
Alimora, an air marshal with the Royal Jordanian Airways, contacted security officials at his airline Saturday night to say that he planned to remain in the United States rather than leave during the scheduled departure from O’Hare International Airport, according to a FBI news release.
Airline officials then contacted the FBI, the release said.
Alimora was not wanted on any criminal charges. Officials simply wanted to determine the “purpose of his stay here,” the release said.
Alimora and three other Jordanian air marshals — military personnel hired by the airline — arrived in Chicago on Thursday aboard RJA flight No. 263 and were scheduled to leave O’Hare for Jordan Saturday evening. There are four air marshals assigned to each flight leaving Jordan, the FBI news release said.
He was last known to be staying at the Ramada Inn-O’Hare North, 200 E. Rand Rd. in Mt. Prospect, the release stated.