FEDS: Smugglers Busted at Texas-Mexico Border with $800K in Cash

Rio Grande Valley Sector Border Patrol agents and CBP officers arrested two U.S. citizens who were allegedly attempting to smuggle more than $800,000 in cash from Texas into Mexico. The arrest took place at a border crossing point near Hidalgo, Texas.

Rio Grande Valley Sector Chief Patrol Agent Gloria Chavez posted a report on social media stating that agents and Customs and Border Protection Office of Field Operations (OFO) officers arrested two U.S. citizens who were attempting to move undeclared U.S. currency from Texas into Mexico.

Chavez said the duo was traveling from Hidalgo, Texas, to Mexico when they were stopped and inspected by agents and officers. During a secondary inspection law enforcement officials found 56 bundles of cash. The smuggled currency totaled $815,745 in value, Chavez stated.

In April, Laredo OFO Director Donald Kusser posted a report of another cash smuggling attempt where the alleged actors attempted to move undeclared cash from Texas into Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas.

Kusser said the vehicle approached the port of entry crossing heading southbound to Mexico. Officers found nine bundles of cash valued at $270,730.

Breitbart Texas reported that the officers arrested a Texas woman, Ana Paulina Araujo Gonzalez, after finding more than $270,000 in undeclared currency as she attempted to cross the Hidalgo Port of Entry bridge. The woman appeared before a U.S. Magistrate judge who set her bond at $30,000 with a $2,000 deposit.

“The smuggling of cash is a common tactic used by drug cartels to move their proceeds back to Mexico,” Breitbart reported. “The city of Reynosa, Tamaulipas, has been controlled historically by the Gulf Cartel, one of the six drug cartels labeled by the U.S. Department of State as foreign terrorist organizations.”

Read more of Breitbart’s coverage of cash smuggling operations.