Cabdriver Is Arrested on Drug Charge, but Interest in Explosives Attracts Attention of F.B.I.

In March, the authorities said, Sayed Abdul Malike, a cabdriver from Brooklyn, went to Miami, took a boat tour of the port, and asked enough questions about bridge design and how close the boat could get to cruise ships that the captain called the F.B.I. In April, the authorities said, Mr. Malike met with an undercover F.B.I. agent working on the joint terrorism task force in New York, looking to buy explosives from him. How much? he was asked. Enough to blow up a mountain, Mr. Malike replied, according to court papers. In May, Mr. Malike arranged to buy Valium pills from the undercover agent, the authorities said. On Tuesday, he bought 100 of them, was immediately arrested, and gave many misleading answers to investigators’ questions, prosecutors said. Yesterday, he was arraigned and held without bail. Mr. Malike, 43 years old and a native of Afghanistan, is charged with drug possession and making false statements, but his alleged interest in substances more dangerous than sedatives has piqued the government’s curiosity. The executive assistant United States attorney in Brooklyn, William J. Muller, said the investigation of him is continuing. Mr. Malike’s unintended contact with terror investigators began on March 21, when, prosecutors said, he asked a store owner in Queens for information on making a bomb. The store owner contacted the F.B.I. Full Story