Police near Los Angeles arrested a man following a traffic stop last week after they discovered two active IEDs in his vehicle.
Saleh Ali, 47, is being charged with transportation and possession of destructive devices according to a press release by the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
KTLA reports:
Saleh Ali was arrested Tuesday when a Brea police officer pulled him over at about 9 p.m. for having an expired registration on his vehicle, Brea Police Lt. Adam Hawley said.
“During the traffic stop, the officer keyed in on a couple of suspicious items in the car he believed to be an explosive device,” Hawley said. “He detained the driver out of an abundance of caution, locked down a little bit of the area and called out sheriff’s bomb squad deputies.”
The deputies destroyed the suspected explosive devices at the scene, Hawley said.
Ali’s last known address is Salinas, California.
Prosecutors say that the devices destroyed by the Orange County Sheriff’s Department bomb squad were “containers covered in shrapnel” and would have exploded had they come in contact with an ignition source.
There is no evidence so far that shows any connection to a terrorist organization.
The Orange County Intelligence Assessment Center was notified, however.
KTLA also reports that Ali was previously arrested in June 2003 in New Jersey for aggravated assault with serious bodily injury and terrorist threats.
Ali’s bail was set at $500,000 and a pre-trial hearing is set for this Friday, September 28. He is still being held in the Orange County Jail.
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