Ambassador Bridge Site of $230k Customs Money Seizure

Posted by Jason P. Wapiennik on
$200,000 in Cash Seized by Customs Detroit at the Ambassador Bridge

Detroit’s Ambassador Bridge was the site of recent money seizures of more nearly $230,000 by Customs for failure to declare cash over $10,000, in commercial vehicles traveling into Canada.

Bundles of undeclared seized cash seized by Detroit CBP The news releases, below, says the money was taken because the driver failed to report the cash at the Ambassador Bridge (but I have to imagine there is a bulk cash smuggling violation somewhere in this, too).

Here’s the Tweet from Detroit’s director of field operations announcing the seizures…

This is the biggest seizure of undeclared cash in Detroit to hit the news in a while. I’m sure the discovery of this amount of money has caused a lot of controversy and interest at the port the last few days. Here’s the full story from CBP, below:

DETROIT — Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) Office of Field Operations seized $200,000 in undeclared U.S. currency at the Canadian border early Tuesday morning.

The cash was discovered by officers during a series of outbound commercial vehicle inspections near the Ambassador Bridge port of entry.

The cache of currency was seized due to failure to report, and the driver was released without further incident.

Homeland Security Investigations continues to investigate the matter. Less than 24 hours earlier, $28,000 in undeclared currency was seized at the same site.

Update 11-12-21:

This week, notice was published of the intent to forfeit the above seized cash. Anyone with an interest in it has until January 11, 2021, to file a claim (unless they received personal notice in the mail, then other deadlines apply):

2021380100131801-0001-0000, Seized on 09/28/2021; At the port of DETROIT; U.S. Currency; 2000; EA; Valued at $200,000.00; For violation of 31 USC 5317(c)(2), 31 USC 5316(a)(1)(A), 31 USC 5332(c), 31 USC 5332(a)

Those legal references mean it was seized for bulk cash smuggling and a failure to report. This is a case I would have liked. The fact that notice has been posted publicly means that the time for filing a petition has past, or the interested person probably decided to file a claim or an offer in compromise (that would probably be a bad idea).

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