USF students had bullets, pipe bombs, deputies say

TAMPA -- Along with pipe bombs, deputies found a box of bullets inside the car of two University of South Florida students indicted on explosives charges, according to the Berkeley County Sheriff's Office in South Carolina.

The two students, Ahmed Mohamed and Youssef Megahed, were pulled over for speeding on a road outside Goose Creek, S.C. A deputy looked inside the car and found a box of bullets under or near the seat of the Toyota Camry, said Chief Deputy C.W. Henerey. Henerey declined to comment on the type of bullets.

The deputy looked in the trunk and found pipe bombs, Henerey said. The deputy also spotted "other suspicious items both inside the trunk and in the car." Henerey declined to give specifics.

At that point, the investigation was turned over the federal authorities, he said. The two students did not give statements to local authorities. They remain in jail in rural Moncks Corner, S.C.

Abbie VanSickle, Times staff writer