Saudi Arabian National Charged with Interstate Transportation of Stolen School Bus

NEWARK, N.J. – A Saudi Arabian man was charged for transporting a stolen school bus across state lines, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced today.

Bader Alzahrani, 22, of Saudi Arabia, is charged by complaint with one count of receipt of a stolen vehicle and one count of transportation of a stolen vehicle. He is scheduled to make his initial appearance this afternoon U.S. Magistrate Judge Edward S. Kiel in Newark federal court. 

According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:

On Jan. 15, 2023, a break-in was reported in an unoccupied residential home in Livingston, New Jersey. During a search of a backpack in that home, law enforcement saw a Saudi Arabian passport with the name Bader Alzahrani, along with other items that appeared to belong to Alzahrani. On Jan. 17, 2023, the Livingston Board of Education reported that a school bus was stolen from a parking lot across the street from the unoccupied residential home where the break-in was reported. Law enforcement officers located Alzahrani in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, and was later found to be in possession of the keys to the stolen school bus.

Each count charged in the complaint is punishable by a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

U.S. Attorney Sellinger credited special agents of the FBI and task force officers of the Joint Terrorism Task Force, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge James E. Dennehy in Newark, with the investigation leading to the charges. He also thanked agents of the FBI Field Office in Washington, D.C., under the direction of Assistant Director in Charge Steven D’Antuono; members of the Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Ricky J. Patel; members of the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office, under the direction of Acting Prosecutor Theodore N. Stephens II; members of the Monroe County, Pennsylvania, Office of the District Attorney, under the direction of District Attorney E. David Christine, Jr.; members of the Livingston Police Department, under the direction of Police Chief Gary Marshuetz; and members of the New Jersey State Police, under the direction of Col. Patrick J. Callahan.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Benjamin Levin of the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s National Security Unit in Newark.

The charges and allegations contained in the complaint are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.+