Federal, local law enforcement officials seize millions in cash bound for Mexico

Laredo Police Department’s Operation Pipeline officers stopped the tractor-trailer heading south; Laredo Police K-9 alerted officers to the trailer, at which point CBP officers performed an X-ray scan, resulting in an anomaly within the carpet rolls. Upon examining the rolls, CBP agents uncovered 57 tape-wrapped bundles of currency totaling $1.2 million.

The Trucker News Services

3/13/2009

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials recently made seizures of millions of dollars in U.S. cash bound for Mexico, the most recent example hidden in rolls of carpet in an 18-wheeler, the Office of Homeland Security reported.

On March 6, CBP officers in Texas assisted the Laredo Police Department in the seizure of $1.2 million in U.S. currency hidden in rolls of carpet inside a tractor-trailer driving southbound on Interstate Highway 35.

The seizure occurred after Laredo Police Department’s Operation Pipeline officers stopped the tractor-trailer heading south; Laredo Police K-9 alerted officers to the trailer, at which point CBP officers performed an X-ray scan, resulting in an anomaly within the carpet rolls. Upon examining the rolls, CBP agents uncovered 57 tape-wrapped bundles of currency totaling $1.2 million.

“Our agents and officers, working together with local law enforcement agencies, are preventing millions of dollars from crossing the border into Mexico,” said U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano. “In stopping the funds that fuel the drug war, we will stifle cartel activity in the United States while helping our neighbors to the south by cracking down on illegal cash before it gets there.”

The final days of February also brought significant victories for CBP and ICE agents working to combat cash movement across the southwest border. On Feb. 20 alone, three separate busts in Laredo garnered $2.5 million in confiscated U.S. currency.

On March 3, CBP officers worked with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to act on an anonymous tip and intercept a southbound SUV with Mexico plates, and found a non-factory compartment made of steel and wrapped with lead containing $1.45 million U.S. currency concealed in the roof of the vehicle. And on March 1, CBP officers conducting outbound operations selected an SUV for inspection and discovered $561,132 hidden in the spare tire and inside a powdered detergent box.

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