Thread: CBP Foils $879,000 Currency Smuggling Attempt

CBP Foils $879K Currency Smuggling Attempt

Release Date:
July 18, 2018

SAN ANTONIO – U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers working at the San Antonio International Airport intercepted a pair of travelers allegedly smuggling currency out of the U.S. July 15.

CBP seizes currency when international
travelers carrying more than $10,000 fail
to truthfully report the amount to CBP.


The travelers were carrying $879,695 packed in boxes and duct taped closed and were en route to Mexico via private aircraft when they were apprehended.

Two CBP officers arrived to San Antonio’s Fixed Base Operation to conduct an outbound inspection on a private aircraft when they noticed the aircraft was on the runway preparing for departure. The officers informed the Federal Aviation Administration tower that the aircraft had not been cleared for departure and to direct the plane to the CBP General Aviation Facility.

When the aircraft arrived, the officers began their inspection, which included asking the passengers for an oral declaration of any currency or monetary instruments they were carrying.

Each passenger provided a negative oral declaration followed by a negative written declaration on CBP Form 6051B.

An inspection of the aircraft revealed taped boxes with stacks of currency concealed inside. CBP officers arrested two Mexican nationals for allegedly intending to evade the currency reporting requirements by knowingly concealing more than $10,000 in currency or other monetary instruments and attempting to transport the currency from within the U.S. to a place outside of the U.S.

“Travelers are given multiple opportunities to make a truthful declaration,” said CBP Port Director Lois Hunter. “We strongly urge travelers to be completely forthright during CBP inspections or risk having their currency seized as well as face charges.”

Travelers may carry as much currency as they wish into and out of the United States and it is not taxed at the port of entry. However, federal law requires that travelers who are carrying more than $10,000 in currency or monetary instruments must report it to a CBP officer and complete a U.S. Treasury Department financial form.

“One of the reasons CBP performs outbound inspections is to protect against unreported exportations of bulk U.S. currency, which often can be proceeds from alleged illicit activity, or currency that funds transnational criminal organizations,” said Houston’s CBP Acting Director of Field Operations Beverly Good. “This significant currency seizure is a direct reflection of our continuing commitment to enforcing all U.S. laws, including federal currency reporting requirements.”

This is among the largest single seizure of unreported currency in the Houston Field Office region which includes San Antonio, Dallas, Austin and Houston. The two men were arrested and turned over to Homeland Security Investigations.

On a typical day in 2017, CBP officers around the country seized $265,205 in undeclared or illicit currency.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is the unified border agency within the Department of Homeland Security charged with the management, control and protection of our nation's borders at and between the official ports of entry. CBP is charged with keeping terrorists and terrorist weapons out of the country while enforcing hundreds of U.S. laws.

Last modified: July 18, 2018

https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/local-m...ggling-attempt

Related article and info

High school students ran drug, illegal immigrant smuggling rings in San Diego

Alleged Cash-Smuggling Teen with Mexican Political Ties Arrested in Texas

2

19 Jul 2018The newly arrested suspected leader of a smuggling group made up of rich socialite teens is related to at least two top Mexican politicians in Tamaulipas. The circle used private planes to allegedly move $1 million a week in cash into Mexico.

This week, federal authorities arrested Rafael Gabriel Martinez Leal and Juan Pablo Hoyos Avila as they, along with two other teens and a pilot, prepared to leave San Antonio, Texas, on their way to Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, carrying almost $880,000 in bulk cash, court records obtained by Breitbart Texas revealed. The story was first published by the San Antonio Express-News whose reporter was present during the initial appearance and identified Hoyos as a student at Incarnate Word University.



Breitbart Texas confirmed Martinez Leal is a cousin of Jose Ramon Gomez Leal, the top representative of Mexican President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, and is a nephew by marriage of Tamaulipas Governor Francisco Cabeza de Vaca. Gomez Leal, a member of the new ruling party in Mexico called Morena, ran for mayor in Reynosa but lost and is currently the top representative of the party in Tamaulipas.
The arrest took place when U.S. Customs and Border Protection in San Antonio received an anonymous call about a private airplane with tail number XB-TOY that would be smuggling cash into Mexico. CBP officers intercepted the plane and found $880,000 in bundles stuffed inside one of seven boxes of fans loaded into the plane.


Agents with Homeland Security Investigations questioned the teens, leading to Martinez and Hoyos to reportedly admit they were smuggling “drug money” in airplanes since January. The other two teens and the pilot claimed to not have knowledge of the operation.


Efforts to reach J.R. Gomez Leal were not successful. Breitbart Texas contacted the Tamaulipas government which issued a statement:

In regards to the references made about Governor Francisco Cabeza de Vaca in relation to the young man arrested yesterday in the U.S. named Rafael Gabriel Martinez Leal and who is described as a relative, let me state that there is no “direct-line” relation.


It is reiterated in a categoric fashion that everyone as a citizen has to assume responsibility for the acts they carry out and if in this case, the young man committed a wrong act he must face the consequences and the law should judge him accordingly.

https://www.breitbart.com/texas/2018/07/19/alleged-cash-smuggling-teen-with-mexican-political-ties-arrested-in-texas/

UIW student to stay in jail in $900,000 smuggling case

By Guillermo Contreras
July 20, 2018 Updated: July 20, 2018 6:57pm

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Photo: Marvin Pfeiffer /San Antonio Express-News


Juan Pablo Hoyos Avila, 19, a University of the Incarnate Word student accused of smuggling $900,000 of suspected drug money in a private plane bound for Monterrey, Mexico, leaves the federal courthouse Friday. ... more


A University of the Incarnate Word student accused of smuggling $900,000 of suspected drug money in a private plane waived a probable cause hearing Friday and pushed back his detention hearing until the end of July.

Juan Pablo Hoyos Avila, 19, an international student who has lived in San Antonio since at least 2013, was arrested this week with a high-profile co-defendant as the plane was about to leave for Monterrey, Mexico. Looking into a tip, U.S. customs agents found more than $879,000 inside the plane, according to court records.

Hoyos’ lawyers, Robert Jimenez and Eddie Garcia, met with federal prosecutors and agents Friday morning before Hoyos’ scheduled preliminary and detention hearings in federal court in San Antonio. Jimenez later told U.S. Magistrate Judge Richard Farrer that Hoyos would waive the preliminary hearing but that all lawyers had agreed to postpone the detention hearing.

Jimenez told reporters afterward that waiving the preliminary hearing “has nothing to say about” the weight of the evidence.

He added that “we’re still in the process of gathering information” for Hoyos’ bail hearing, which was rescheduled for July 30.

Jimenez declined to discuss any of Hoyos’ personal details, including information from the Federal Aviation Administration showing that Hoyos has a pilot’s license or how Hoyos knew his co-defendant, Rafael Gabriel Martinez Leal.

Both are facing a bulk-cash smuggling charge, for which they could receive up to five years in prison if convicted.
Martinez, also 19, lives in a wealthy suburb of Monterrey and is a cousin of the wife of the governor of Tamaulipas, a northern Mexican state that borders Texas. Martinez is also a cousin of a politician that Mexico’s incoming president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, picked to head his Morena political party in Tamaulipas.

Hoyos has had a Texas driver’s license since 2013, has lived in an $800,000 home in Stone Oak with his father and had declared business administration as a course of study at UIW, according to public records. According to court documents, Hoyos told customs agents he collected money for Martinez and held it for him at his San Antonio apartment. He also said he knew the money agents seized was “something like undeclared cash or drug money,” court record said.

Martinez, meanwhile, took full responsibility for the smuggling of U.S. currency and told agents that he had transported about $1 million a week for nine months, the court documents said.

Martinez is scheduled for his hearings July 26. Both remain in a federal jail in San Antonio.

Hoyos’ relatives who attended the scheduled hearings Friday declined comment, but his father described his son as a “good kid.” The father said he did not know Martinez.

https://www.expressnews.com/news/loc...m_campaign=123

Juan Pablo Hoyos Avila, 19, an international student who has lived in San Antonio since at least 2013, was arrested this week with a high-profile co-defendant as the plane was about to leave for Monterrey, Mexico.

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And is his Student Visa current? Or another visa overstay. Another program that needs to be terminated. We do not need these "foreign" students coming here. Go somewhere else, study in your own damn country.

Our schools and colleges are overcrowded, too much violence and now bringing their culture, crime and protests to our campus'. Shut is down!

age 19
an international student
lived in San Antonio since at least 2013
Texas driver’s license since 2013
lives in a $800,000 home
possibly has a pilot’s license
running 1 million a week into Mexico

The annual list price to attend University of the Incarnate Word on a full time basis for 2016/2017 is $44,862 for all students regardless of their residency.

It would be interesting to learn how much student aid, financial assistance he was ripping the tax payer for.

University of the Incarnate Word - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_the_Incarnate_Word
The University of the Incarnate Word (UIW) is a private Catholic university whose main campus is located in San Antonio and Alamo Heights, Texas.