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Airport Police Detain Student

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From Associated Press

A man who claimed to be a Secret Service agent is in federal custody after an attempt to enter a restricted area at Ontario International Airport.

Mostafa Mansoori, 20, of Rancho Cucamonga has been charged by federal prosecutors on suspicion of making false statements and attempting to enter a secure area under false pretenses.

Mansoori was detained by airport police on March 15, then turned over to the Secret Service.

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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 could follow.

Confronted by a guard, Mansoori reportedly said 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.

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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.

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“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.

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