A rideshare driver from West Africa remains behind bars for allegedly raping a teenage female passenger in Maryland, after he was arrested on similar charges in New York City.
Abdoulaye Dia, a citizen of Guinea, is in the country illegally and had prior sexual assault charges, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said. He somehow passed security checks to become an Empower rideshare driver.
The 36-year-old is accused of kidnapping and raping an underage girl during a ride and remains in custody at Montgomery County Correctional Facility.
The Montgomery County Police Department said investigators working on the case are concerned there could be other victims.
Dia gave an address of Lanham, Maryland, and was arrested on Sept. 16. He is charged with first-degree rape, kidnapping, second-degree assault and third-degree sex offense, the MCPD said in a post on Facebook.
According to DHS officials, Dia is another catch-and-release migrant who crossed at the Arizona border in 2023 and was released by the Biden administration.
DHS said he was recently arrested in sanctuary New York City for alleged sexual abuse by forcible compulsion.
The latest rape charges stem from an incident in Montgomery County, Maryland, located northwest of Washington, D.C. It is the most populous and one of the wealthiest counties in Maryland.
On Sept. 15, Montgomery County police officers were dispatched to an area hospital and spoke to the underage victim.
The teenage girl told police she was raped by an Empower rideshare driver, after he took her to a parking lot in Silver Spring, Maryland, the MCPD said in a news release.
“Based on the circumstances of the investigation, detectives are concerned there may be other victims,” MCPD said.
Special Victims Investigations Division detectives identified Dia through information obtained from the rideshare app. Dia was located and arrested in Lanham the next day.
The New York Police Department arrested him in June for sexually assaulting a minor but he was released, Fox News reported.
He faced several serious charges, including sexual abuse by forcible compulsion, forcible touching of the sexual/intimate parts of another person, injuring a child less than 17 and sexual abuse without consent, DHS officials said.
A spokesperson from the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office said their office requested Dia be held on bond, though a judge ordered him out on supervised release, WJLA 7News reported.
Empower said that all its drivers undergo background, sex offender, motor vehicle and Social Security checks. They are vetted against the same global watchlist used by Uber and Lyft, per the Fox News report.
“The background check, sex offender check, driving record check, social security trace, and global watchlist search on this customer were conducted on July 16, 2026, and did not reveal any incidents,” the company told Fox News about Dia.
