Professor arrested for weapons in luggage

CAIRO, May 12 (UPI) -- A professor who flew from New York to Cairo was detained after Egyptian officials allegedly found weapons and ammunition in his luggage, authorities said.

"Mohamed Ibrahim Khalf, a professor of botany at a U.S.-based school, was transferred to a state security prosecutor for further investigation," customs officials at Cairo International Airport said Wednesday.

Khalf, an Egyptian-American who flew from New York's JFK International Airport, allegedly had six metal boxes in his luggage containing two 9mm pistols, 250 bullets, two swords and 11 daggers, al-Masry al-Youm, a Cairo newspaper reported.

It was not clear whether the weapons and ammunition were discovered Wednesday by metal detectors or during a manual search by security guards.

Customs officials in Cairo declined to comment on whether they were in contact with U.S. authorities to determine how the weapons and ammunition made it onto the Cairo-bound plane. It also was not clear for what U.S. school Khalf worked.