Mexico detains Egyptian on U.S. 'watch list'
Reuters News Service

 Source

MEXICO CITY - Mexican police have detained an Egyptian man who appears on the U.S. "flight restriction" list as he and a compatriot tried to board an airplane in the Caribbean beach resort of Cancun, police said today.

Mohamed Moustafa Abdel Aziz Shahim, 26, was headed for Mexico City accompanied by Ali Ozman Adham, 36, when police picked them up on Saturday.

Shahim's name appeared on a list of people under watch by the United States, police said. They were handed over to migration authorities where they remain under detention.

"The migration authorities will now decide if they deport them, keep them in custody or if they hand them over to prosecutors, in the case that they have committed a crime," said a spokesman from the attorney general's office.

In recent months there have been a string of false alarms over supposed terrorism suspects in Mexico and Central America, seen as weak spots in the U.S. fight against terrorism.

In June, Mexico arrested British tourist Amer Haykel, who it described as "linked to extremist groups presumably involved in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks." Haykel was later cleared of all suspicion.

Mexico remains sensitive to criticism from Washington that its porous borders could be used as an entrance to the United States to launch terrorist attacks.