CBP Laredo Seizes $91K in Unreported Cash

Posted by Jason P. Wapiennik on
Cash Seized by El Paso Texas CBP

CBP new’s releases have been lean on stories about money seizures for structuring, bulk cash smuggling, failure to report; the trinity of CMIR (currency and monetary instrument report) cases. These types of asset forfeitures all pertain to the movement of more than $10,000 in cash without filing the necessary FinCen 105 report.

For that reason, I am reaching back in time to some old news releases that I never had a chance to comment on before. In this Laredo story, a 30 year old man and 19 year old woman were heading to Mexico and failure to report $91,116, which was also concealed in their clothing and packages.

That sounds like both a violation of 31 USC 5316 (failure to report more than $10,000 currency) and 31 USC 5332 (bulk cash smuggling). In this case, the they were both arrested! That to me means there was further suspicion on the part of CBP that there was criminal activity beyond the CMIR violations afoot. Here’s the full story:

LAREDO, Texas – U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Office of Field Operations (OFO) officers working outbound operations seized over $91,000 in undeclared currency in a single enforcement act.

. . .

The enforcement action occurred on Thursday, March 25 at the Juarez-Lincoln Bridge, when officers assigned to outbound operations selected a 2017 Chevrolet Equinox traveling to Mexico for inspection. A 30-year-old male United States citizen driver and 19-year-old female passenger were referred for a secondary examination. Upon physical inspection of the drivers’ clothing, packages containing $91,116 in undeclared U.S currency were discovered.

The currency was seized by CBP. Both subjects were arrested, and the case was turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement-Homeland Security Investigations (ICE-HSI) special agents for further investigation.

Individuals are permitted to carry any amount of currency or monetary instruments into or out of the U.S., however, if the quantity is more than $10,000, they will need to report it to CBP.  . . . Failure to declare may result in seizure of the currency and/or arrest.

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