Cash seizures by law enforcement are a window into the scale of global criminal enterprise. The amounts involved in the largest seizures in history are staggering — hundreds of millions of dollars found in bedroom walls, vehicle compartments, shipping containers, and corporate bank accounts. This list covers 20 of the largest documented cash seizures in history, drawing on verified government records, court filings, and credible news reporting. Where seizure amounts are disputed or vary across sources, that is noted. The list spans U.S. and international enforcement actions, ranging from drug trafficking proceeds to sanctions evasion and fraud.
If CBP has seized your cash at a U.S. port of entry, these headline cases are very different from what most travelers face — but the legal framework is the same. Read our customs money seizure legal guide for information on your options.
1. $1 Billion+ — Bitfinex Hack Recovery, United States, 2022
The largest single cash and digital asset seizure in U.S. Department of Justice history occurred in February 2022, when federal agents seized approximately 94,636 Bitcoin — valued at approximately $3.6 billion at the time of seizure — connected to the 2016 hack of the Bitfinex cryptocurrency exchange. Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan were arrested in connection with the alleged laundering of the stolen Bitcoin. The DOJ described it as the largest financial seizure in the department’s history. While primarily a digital asset seizure rather than physical cash, it reflects the evolution of large-scale financial enforcement into the cryptocurrency space.
2. $656 Million — Saddam Hussein’s Palaces, Iraq, 2003
During the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, coalition forces discovered approximately $650 million to $900 million in physical cash hidden in Saddam Hussein’s palaces and private residences — in metal containers buried behind walls and stashed throughout the regime’s properties. The largest single discovery was approximately $650 million found in metal containers in one of Hussein’s palaces. The total amount discovered across multiple locations was estimated at up to $900 million. The funds were believed to represent regime assets and were taken into U.S. custody for eventual transfer to the Iraqi government.
3. $205–$226 Million — Zhenli Ye Gon, Mexico City, 2007
The largest single drug cash seizure in law enforcement history — a designation that has held for nearly two decades — occurred on March 15, 2007, when Mexican federal police, working with the DEA, raided the Mexico City mansion of Chinese-Mexican businessman Zhenli Ye Gon. Inside they found mountains of U.S. $100 bills, pesos, euros, and other currencies stacked in closets, stuffed in suitcases, and piled throughout the home. The DEA described it as “the largest single drug-cash seizure the world has ever seen.” The amount reported varies across sources — Mexican authorities initially reported approximately $205 million; later counts produced figures between $205 million and $226 million. The cash weighed more than two tons and took agents two days to remove. The DEA linked the funds to Ye Gon’s alleged supply of pseudoephedrine to the Sinaloa Cartel for methamphetamine production. Ye Gon was arrested in Rockville, Maryland in July 2007 and extradited to Mexico in 2016.
4. $200 Million+ — Operation RapTor, Global, 2025
Operation RapTor, a global law enforcement action coordinated through the DOJ’s Joint Criminal Opioid and Darknet Enforcement team, resulted in the seizure of more than $200 million in currency and digital assets alongside more than two metric tons of drugs, 144 kilograms of fentanyl, and over 180 firearms. The operation spanned the United States, Europe, South America, and Asia and resulted in 270 arrests across ten countries. IRS Criminal Investigation led the financial enforcement components. The DOJ described RapTor as the highest number of seizures of any JCODE operation to date — a reflection of the growing scale of darknet drug trafficking enforcement and the financial flows it generates.
5. $100 Million — Operation Casablanca, United States/Mexico, 1998
Operation Casablanca, led by the U.S. Customs Service over nearly three years from 1995 to 1998, was described by Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin and Attorney General Janet Reno as the largest drug money laundering case in U.S. law enforcement history at the time. Undercover Customs agents posed as money launderers for the Cali and Juarez cartels and penetrated the financial networks of major Mexican banks. The operation resulted in 167 arrests — including officials of three major Mexican banks — and the seizure of approximately $100 million in cash and bank accounts. The case was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.
6. $100 Million — Pablo Escobar Cash Stashes, Colombia, Various
In the course of the hunt for Pablo Escobar and the dismantling of the Medellín Cartel throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s, Colombian and U.S. law enforcement recovered more than $100 million in physical cash from various hideouts, stash houses, and cartel properties. Escobar’s fortune was so vast that the cartel reportedly spent $2,500 per month on rubber bands alone to hold stacks of bills together — and reportedly wrote off approximately 10% of cash holdings annually as losses to rats, moisture, and deterioration in storage facilities. The individual seizures from cartel properties, safe houses, and captured couriers accumulated to nine-figure totals across the enforcement campaign.
7. $65 Million — Los Angeles Fashion District, Operation Fashion Police, 2014
HSI agents and law enforcement partners executed search warrants across the Los Angeles Fashion District in September 2014 as part of Operation Fashion Police and related investigations — targeting businesses suspected of serving as fronts for cartel money laundering through Black Market Peso Exchange schemes. Agents seized what was estimated at the time to be at least $65 million in cash and bank deposits, including $35 million in bills stacked and stashed in filing boxes inside a Los Angeles condominium. The operation led to nine arrests and demonstrated the extent to which cartel drug proceeds from U.S. drug sales were being laundered through legitimate-appearing wholesale businesses in downtown Los Angeles.
8. $54 Million — Operation Green Ice, Eight Nations, 1992
Operation Green Ice, a multilateral financial investigation involving eight nations — Canada, the Cayman Islands, Colombia, Costa Rica, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States — concluded in September 1992 with 122 arrests and the seizure of $54 million in cash and assets. The operation targeted Cali Cartel money laundering operations and resulted in the arrest of seven top cartel money launderers, including a Dutch national in Italy with high-level connections to Cali Cartel leadership. The DEA described the operation as a major disruption to cocaine money laundering activity across the United States, Latin America, and Europe.
9. $50 Million — Los Angeles Condominium Cash Vault, 2014
As part of the broader Fashion District enforcement operation, HSI agents discovered and seized what was conservatively estimated at more than $50 million in bulk cash — including the $35 million in bills stacked in filing boxes found inside a single Los Angeles condominium connected to cartel money laundering operations. The discovery of $35 million in a single residential unit became one of the most widely publicized images of bulk cash seizure in U.S. law enforcement history — photographs of agents standing among stacked bricks of shrink-wrapped $100 bills circulated widely and illustrated the scale of cartel cash management operations in the United States.
10. $3.6 Million — San Diego Border Patrol Largest Sector Seizure, 2015
U.S. Border Patrol agents in San Diego County’s North County area made what was described at the time as the largest currency seizure in San Diego Border Patrol Sector history — approximately $3.05 million in cash discovered in the trunk of an abandoned vehicle after a pursuit, plus $33,880 found in a second vehicle’s center console. San Diego Sector Chief Patrol Agent Richard A. Barlow described the $3 million trunk discovery as the largest single currency seizure in the sector’s history. Two men — one a U.S. citizen, one a Mexican national — were arrested on federal currency smuggling charges. The case illustrated the scale of bulk cash smuggling operations in the San Diego corridor and the role of vehicle abandonment as a tactic when smugglers become aware of law enforcement pursuit.
11. $3.5 Million — Otay Mesa, San Diego, 2020
DEA and HSI agents seized approximately $3.5 million in bulk U.S. currency alongside 685 kilograms of cocaine, 24 kilograms of fentanyl, and approximately 20,000 rounds of .50 caliber ammunition at a truck yard in Otay Mesa, California in November 2020 — described by federal authorities as the largest single seizure of cash, narcotics, and ammunition in the Southern District of California’s history. Three Mexican nationals associated with the Sinaloa Cartel were charged. The investigation had begun in 2011 and expanded into a massive multi-national, multi-state operation resulting in scores of arrests and seizures across nine years of work.
12. $3 Million in Caribbean Waters — U.S. Coast Guard and CBP Operations
CBP agents operating in the Caribbean — including the St. Thomas and San Juan enforcement operations under the Miami Field Office — have documented seizures approaching $3 million in single enforcement actions in Caribbean waters. Caribbean maritime enforcement is a significant component of overall U.S. currency seizure activity, with drug trafficking proceeds moving through the Caribbean corridor generating substantial interdiction results annually. CBP agents in St. Thomas seized $3 million in a single documented enforcement action, one of the largest Caribbean maritime seizures on record.
13. $1 Million+ — Blue Water Bridge, Port Huron, Michigan
One of the largest single seizures at a northern U.S. border crossing involved more than $1 million in currency seized at the Blue Water Bridge connecting Port Huron, Michigan to Sarnia, Ontario. Cases of this scale at northern border crossings are exceptional — the average northern border currency seizure is in the tens of thousands of dollars rather than the millions — which makes the Blue Water Bridge million-dollar case one of the more notable enforcement actions in the Detroit Field Office’s history. The case was processed at CBP headquarters rather than the local FP&F office due to the amount involved, consistent with CBP policy for cases above $100,000.
14. $879,000 — Smuggled by Plane, 2018
CBP seized $879,000 in currency that had been smuggled by private aircraft — one of the larger documented air transport bulk cash seizure cases in the CBP enforcement record. Currency transported by private aircraft rather than commercial aviation represents a more sophisticated smuggling method that bypasses the standard airport examination process, and cases involving private aircraft seizures typically result in criminal referrals and HSI investigations into the broader network responsible for the transport.
15. $844,000 — Smuggled in Televisions, San Juan, Puerto Rico
CBP at the San Juan, Puerto Rico seaport seized $844,000 in currency that had been smuggled inside televisions in a cargo shipment. The concealment method — currency hidden inside consumer electronics in a commercial cargo container — reflects the use of legitimate commercial shipping infrastructure for bulk cash smuggling. Puerto Rico’s position as a transit point between the continental United States and the Caribbean makes it a consistent enforcement location for both inbound and outbound currency cases, with the San Juan Field Office ranking first nationally for currency seizure volume on a per-port basis.
16. $715,000 — Single Airport Seizure, United States
A documented $715,000 single-airport currency seizure represents one of the larger individual airport enforcement actions in the CBP enforcement record — currency seized in a single examination from a traveler who had failed to file the required FinCEN 105. Cases at this scale at airports typically involve currency connected to drug trafficking or money laundering operations and result in HSI criminal investigations alongside the civil forfeiture proceeding. The amount exceeds the $100,000 threshold at which CBP headquarters rather than local FP&F reviews the petition.
17. $644,285 — Brownsville, Texas, 2018
CBP at the Brownsville port of entry seized $644,285 in a single enforcement action in 2018 — one of the larger documented individual seizures at this south Texas crossing. The amount, the location, and the method of concealment are consistent with the southbound bulk cash enforcement pattern that defines Brownsville’s enforcement profile: drug proceeds generated by U.S. drug markets being transported across the Rio Grande into Tamaulipas, Mexico, to fund cartel operations. Cases at this scale at Brownsville involve arrest, HSI referral, and vehicle seizure as a matter of standard enforcement practice.
18. $510,000 — Dulles Airport, Largest Single Seizure on Record
Washington Dulles International Airport has documented individual currency seizures in the $300,000 to $510,000 range from outbound passengers — representing some of the largest individual airport currency seizure cases on record at a non-border U.S. airport. The Dulles enforcement operation — which deploys currency-detecting K-9 units, outbound passenger verification, and a dedicated enforcement team on international departures — generates some of the highest per-case averages of any East Coast airport. Cases in this range at Dulles typically involve outbound flights to West Africa, the Middle East, or South Asia and result in immediate seizure and CAFRA forfeiture proceedings. Visit our Dulles Airport seizure page for more information.
19. $491,280 — Hidden in a Chair, Miami International Airport, 2020
One of the most widely documented Miami airport seizures involved $491,280 concealed inside the bottom of a cushioned chair — furniture that had been hollowed out and stuffed with currency before being sealed and shipped as part of a furniture crate destined for the Dominican Republic. CBP officers discovered the currency during outbound enforcement operations at Miami International Airport on September 3, 2020. The concealment method — currency hidden inside the structural base of a piece of furniture, sealed to appear intact — required deliberate preparation and reflected the organized approach to bulk cash export that CBP’s Miami outbound enforcement operation is specifically designed to detect. Visit our Miami Airport seizure page for more information.
20. $459,000 — Detroit Metro Airport, 25 Travelers, October 2024
In October 2024, CBP at Detroit Metro Airport seized $459,000 from 25 separate travelers in a single month — an average of approximately $18,360 per case. While not a single enforcement action, the aggregate monthly total represents one of the higher documented single-month airport currency enforcement totals at a northern border airport. The Detroit Field Office’s sustained enforcement posture — annual totals consistently in the multi-millions of dollars — makes Detroit one of the most active currency enforcement ports in the country despite its northern border location.
What These Cases Mean for Ordinary Travelers
The cases on this list involve drug cartels, sanctions evasion, cryptocurrency fraud, and organized criminal enterprises operating at a scale that dwarfs what the typical international traveler carries. But the legal framework that gave law enforcement the authority to seize in most of these cases is the same framework that governs the seizure of a traveler’s $15,000 at an airport checkpoint — the currency reporting requirement under 31 U.S.C. § 5316, the bulk cash smuggling statute under 31 U.S.C. § 5332, and the civil forfeiture authority under 31 U.S.C. § 5317.
Every one of the cases on this list began with a decision to move money without reporting it. The scale differs by orders of magnitude from a typical traveler’s seizure. The law does not. If CBP has seized your cash at any U.S. port of entry, read our customs money seizure legal guide or call us at (734) 855-4999, send a text message, or reach us on WhatsApp. You can also contact us online for a free consultation.
References
- U.S. Department of Justice. (2022, February 8). Justice Department seizes over $3.6 billion in cryptocurrency linked to 2016 Bitfinex hack. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-seizes-over-36-billion-cryptocurrency-linked-2016-bitfinex-hack
- NBC News. (2007, July 24). Alleged Mexican drug trafficker nabbed in U.S. https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna19922809
- Wikipedia. (2024). Zhenli Ye Gon. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhenli_Ye_Gon
- Seattle Times. (2007, March). Biggest cash seizure in history — $205M — in Mexico City. https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/biggest-cash-seizure-in-history-8212-205m-8212-in-mexico-city/
- U.S. Department of Justice. (2025, June 23). Law enforcement seize record amounts of illegal drugs, firearms, and drug trafficking proceeds in international operation against darknet trafficking of fentanyl and opioids. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/law-enforcement-seize-record-amounts-illegal-drugs-firearms-and-drug-trafficking-proceeds
- U.S. Department of the Treasury. (1998, May 18). U.S. Customs Service takes down major drug traffickers, corrupt banks and bankers in largest drug money laundering case ever. https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/rr2452
- U.S. Department of the Treasury. (1998, June 11). Treasury Under Secretary Raymond W. Kelly testimony on Operation Casablanca. https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/rr2509
- Drug Enforcement Administration. (1993). DEA Congressional testimony on Cali Cartel operations. U.S. Department of Justice. https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/150299NCJRS.pdf
- U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. (2014, September). Large-scale law enforcement effort targets downtown Los Angeles businesses linked to money laundering for drug cartels. https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/large-scale-law-enforcement-effort-targets-downtown-los-angeles-businesses-linked
- Drug Enforcement Administration. (2020, November 24). Agents seize $3.5 million in U.S. currency and massive quantities of cocaine, fentanyl, and .50 caliber ammunition in Otay Mesa. https://www.dea.gov/press-releases/2020/11/24/agents-seize-35-million-us-currency-and-massive-quantities-cocaine
- InSight Crime. (2015, September). ‘Largest ever’ cash seizure made on U.S.-Mexico border. https://insightcrime.org/news/brief/largest-ever-cash-seizure-made-on-california-mexico-border/
- U.S. Customs and Border Protection. (2020, September 9). CBP officers at Miami International Airport discover almost $500,000 inside a chair. https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/local-media-release/cbp-officers-miami-international-airport-discover-almost-500000-inside
- Celebrity Net Worth. (2025). What happens to money confiscated from drug busts? https://www.celebritynetworth.com/articles/entertainment-articles/what-happens-to-money-confiscated-from-drug-busts/
- U.S. Customs and Border Protection. (2018). CBP seizes $879K smuggled by plane. https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/local-media-release/cbp-seizes-879k-smuggled-plane
- National Drug Intelligence Center. (2005). National Drug Threat Assessment 2005: Money laundering. U.S. Department of Justice. https://www.justice.gov/archive/ndic/pubs11/12620/money.htm