U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden wants federal law enforcement to turn over potential travel records on a number of Saudi college students who vanished while facing criminal charges in Oregon.

In a letter Monday, Wyden asked the head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection for documents related to the outbound travel of suspects at the center of an Oregonian/OregonLive investigation.

The news organization has revealed criminal cases involving at least five Saudi nationals who disappeared before they faced trial or completed their jail sentence in Oregon.

They include two accused rapists, a pair of suspected hit-and-run drivers and one man with a trove of child pornography on his computer.

All were young men studying at a public college or university in Oregon with assistance from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia at the time of their arrest.

In four of the cases, the Saudi government stepped in to help, posting large sums of money for bail and possibly underwriting legal fees, according to court records and interviews with prosecutors.

Three had turned over their passports court or law enforcement officials to prevent their travel at the time of their disappearance.

“It is unclear how these students were able to leave the country and travel internationally, since they had surrendered their passports,” Wyden, a Democrat, wrote to Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan.

“Given the similarities in these cases, a thorough investigation is needed to better understand the involvement of (the) Saudi government.”

Wyden last month asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker for explanations about the disappearance of one of the defendants, Abdulrahman Sameer Noorah, a Portland Community College student.

Noorah was charged in the fatal hit-and-run death of 15-year-old Fallon Smart in August 2016. He vanished two weeks before his June 2017 manslaughter trial.

Federal law enforcement officials told The Oregonian/OregonLive last month they believe the Saudis helped orchestrate Noorah’s remarkable escape and that the young man arrived back in Saudi Arabia 18 months ago.

Officials with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Marshals Service believe Noorah left his Southeast Portland neighborhood in a black SUV and later used an illicit passport and private plane — likely provided by the Saudi government — to flee the country.

Customs and Border Protection did not respond to a request for comment.

Read Wyden’s full letter here.

-- Shane Dixon Kavanaugh; 503-294-7632