Foreigner Found With Prepaids, Cash In Murrysville Is Held By Feds
POSTED: 11:05 am EDT August 7, 2006
UPDATED: 2:39 pm EDT August 7, 2006
GREENSBURG, Pa. -- A man from the Republic of Georgia is being held in the Westmoreland County Prison after he and another man from that country were found with 15 prepaid cell phones and $4,200 in cash, police said.
The Tribune-Review reported that Malkhaz Zakutashvili, 53, was held through the federal Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Murrysville police said the federal agency told police not to hold the second man, Zurabi Maisuradze, 25.
Police said the men were questioned just before 8 p.m. Saturday because their van, which did not have a permanent registration plate, was stopped in a lane of traffic in the Franklin Plaza parking lot.
The men said they were immigrants, but each displayed Michigan driver's licenses, police said.
Zakutashvili told police he was in the country illegally, Tappe said. Maisuradze claimed to have a visa, but he said he had forgotten to bring it with him.
The prepaid cell phones, which the men had recently purchased in Monroeville and Murrysville, were found inside the van. Also in the van were a laptop computer and global-positioning software.
A bomb-sniffing dog found nothing suspicious in the van, which had no seats or wall paneling inside, police said.
The men said they were on the way to Philadelphia and had visited a local drug store to buy batteries, police said.