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USA CUSTOMS Catches “Bulk Cash Smugglers” with $3.1m at Border of USA - MEXICO
FROM A
DIFFERENT POINT OF VIEW by Monte Friesner
30 September 2010
WANTED SA has learned that fourteen passengers on a tour bus traveling to Mexico from the United States were apprehended this week attempting to “bulk cash smuggle” $3.1 Million USD in cash out of the United States.
Curiously seven of the arrested were US citizens and the remaining seven Mexican nationals. They were using deflated air mattresses to conceal the illicit cash, which is one of the oldest and silliest methods of transporting cash.
The arrests, which took place at the Hidalgo, Texas Port of Entry where all charged with “bulk cash smuggling”* or the evasion of currency reporting requirements.
Are money launderers now looking to use North Americans for their dirty work?
Please note that all the Defendants were in their early twenties. The court file does not indicate whether any or all were students, but it is important to note that cash couriers hired by narcotics traffickers in the Eastern United States are often college students, who travel from the Northeastern US to Florida, where they often hand off their cargo to cash-intensive businesses, who launder it, or move it to South America.
*United States vs. Tapia-Pineda et al, Case No.: 7:10-MJ-02632-2 (SD TX). Note that this is only the Magistrate case number, as no permanent case number has yet been assigned.
The facts and opinions stated in this article are those of the author and not those of WANTED SA. WANTED SA does not warrant the accuracy of any facts and opinions stated in this article; does not endorse them, and accepts no responsibility for them.
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