CBP in San Diego Seizes More Than $100,000 in Undeclared Cash Headed Into Mexico

May 3, 2010 - San Diego - U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers conducting outbound inspections at the San Ysidro port of entry Thursday stopped a man with more than $100,000 in undeclared currency from disappearing into Mexico.

At about 4:45 p.m., CBP officers were conducting inspections of persons leaving the United States through the pedestrian exit point into Mexico at the San Ysidro port of entry, just west of the I-5 freeway. A CBP officer stopped a 44-year-old male U.S. citizen, and resident of Riverside, Calif., to ask if he had anything to declare, and the man stated that he did not. During a patdown, the officer felt a suspicious bulge at the man’s waistband, and escorted him aside for a more intensive inspection.

CBP officers discovered a vacuum-sealed bundle of money tucked into the man’s waistband at the front of his jeans, containing $96,950. When officers examined the bag the man was carrying, a bowling-style travel bag, they discovered an additional $5,216 in a pocket in the bag, for a total of $102,166 in undeclared currency.

CBP officers seized the money, and turned custody of the man over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents; he is currently booked into the Metropolitan Correctional Center facing criminal charges.

It is a federal offense not to declare currency or monetary instruments totaling more than $10,000 to a CBP officer upon entry into, or exit from the United States, or to conceal it with intent to evade reporting requirements. Failure to declare may result in seizure of the currency and arrest.