A 26-year-old Nigerien student, Moctar Ahmadou Gouroudja Ahmadou, was sentenced to 78 months in federal prison for firearms offenses as a nonimmigrant visa holder, the Department of Justice reported. Serving as an admonitory verdict, his punishment underscores the US government’s rigorous application of the laws governing the possession of weapons by foreign nationals on American soil.
Convicted on March 14, 2023, after just an hour of deliberation by the jury, Ahmadou faced charges that stemmed from his use of firearms at a Texas gun range – activities deemed criminal by the virtue of his status in the country. According to a Department of Justice release, U.S. District Judge Alfred H. Bennett dictated the sentence and emphasized that Ahmadou’s unauthorized engagement with firearms betrayed the educational purpose of his visa.
U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani cast the defendant’s actions in stark relief: “Moctar Ahmadou, like thousands every year, traveled to the United States under an F-1 visa in search of American education. But when he took that quest for knowledge to a gun range, picked up a gun, handled the ammo and fired it, he went from student to criminal. This sentence sends a strong message to those like Ahmadou–stay in the classroom and away from the gun range otherwise your American education will come not from a University but from the prison library.”
Ahmadou, who was lawfully in the US on a nonimmigrant F1 visa since March 2016 to study at North American University in Stafford, transgressed his visa conditions when he fired a handgun and a rifle on consecutive days in May 2021. Despite the educational intent of his stay, Ahmadou’s handling of a pistol and ammunition was in direct violation of his legal stipulations as a student visa holder. Following the “First Shot” course completion, he not only rented but also purchased a Glock 45, witnessed shooting towards a target on the range.
Further exacerbating his legal ordeal, Ahmadou was found to have associated with a suspect to the attack on Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, and he was in possession of jihadist videos, according to evidence presented in court. With his impending transfer to a Bureau of Prisons facility, the consequences of Ahmadou’s actions culminate not only in incarceration but also in the likely revocation of his US visa and potential deportation proceedings.
The prosecution’s case drew upon contributions from the FBI, working in collaboration with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the Department of State – Diplomatic Security Service; Homeland Security Investigations; Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Customs and Immigration Service; and Texas Department of Fish and Wildlife. The sentencing, therefore, represents not merely the close of a legal chapter for Ahmadou but a manifest exhibit of the federal resolve to enforce the strictures binding those who choose to study within the citadel of American academia, wielding notepads and pens, rather than guns and ammunition.
This post was originally published on this site be sure to check out more of their content.
