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Guinean Rideshare Driver Charged With Rape in Maryland Had Prior NYC Sex Abuse Arrest
Abdoulaye Dia, a Guinean national in the U.S. illegally, faces first-degree rape and kidnapping charges in Montgomery County, Maryland, after a teenage passenger reported an assault. Federal authorities say he was arrested in New York City on sex abuse charges weeks earlier.
A rideshare driver in Maryland has been charged with first-degree rape and kidnapping after a teenage passenger told police he assaulted her, and federal authorities say the same man was arrested on sex abuse charges in New York City only weeks earlier.
Abdoulaye Dia, of Lanham, Maryland, was taken into custody Wednesday, according to the Department of Homeland Security. The charges against him include first-degree rape, kidnapping, second-degree assault and a third-degree sex offense.
Montgomery County Police officers were called to a hospital Tuesday, where an underage girl reported she had been raped by a driver for the rideshare company Empower. She told investigators the driver took her to a parking lot in Silver Spring, where the alleged assault occurred. Police identified Dia through information obtained from the rideshare app and arrested him the following day.
Dia is a citizen of Guinea who entered the United States illegally through Arizona in December 2023 and was released by the Biden administration, a DHS spokesperson said. Before the Maryland arrest, he was arrested June 10 in New York City on charges of sexual abuse by forcible compulsion, forcible touching of the sexual or intimate parts of another person, injuring a child under 17 and sexual abuse without consent, according to the spokesperson.
Empower said all of its drivers undergo background checks, sex offender checks, motor vehicle record checks and Social Security traces, and are vetted against the same global watchlist used by Uber and Lyft through the same screening provider. The company said the checks on Dia were conducted on July 16 and did not reveal any incidents.
«The Montgomery County Police Department reached out to Empower about this incident,» the company said. «Empower, as is our policy, asked law enforcement what Empower could do to assist their investigation and immediately provided all information requested.»
The case adds to a broader national debate over rideshare safety and immigration enforcement, as states and localities weigh how to screen drivers and cooperate with federal authorities. The charges against Dia follow other high-profile cases in the region involving rideshare drivers and immigrants in the country illegally, including a twice-deported man charged with rape in Virginia.
DHS has publicly urged local jurisdictions to honor federal immigration detainers, arguing that cooperation is necessary to prevent suspects from being released back into communities. Montgomery County, like many jurisdictions in the region, has limits on how local police assist federal immigration enforcement.
Empower, which competes with larger rideshare platforms, has said it uses the same screening standards as its rivals. The company said it provided all requested information to police and did not comment further on the pending case.
The investigation remains active, and Dia is being held pending court proceedings. Authorities have not released additional details about the circumstances of the alleged assault or the victim, who is a minor.
