Thread: Feds track hotel guest with $1 MILLION in cash

Feds track Houston Westin hotel guest with $1 million in cash

By Barbara De Lollis, USA TODAY
Updated 5h 47m ago

If you're into money laundering stories, then you need to check out the Houston Chronicle's interesting piece about a traveler who checked into the Westin Oaks Hotel, which is attached to the Galleria shopping mall.

The story's about a well-dressed man from Mexico - in the USA on a valid visa - who checked into the high-end Westin carrying a large, block rolling suitcase and a gym bag packed.

The gym bag was loaded with $995,020. That's right - nearly $1,000,000, in $10s and $20s.

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Federal agents watched him for more than two days as he came and went from his room like any tourist. They'd received a tip that he was tied to money laundering activity for drug dealers and suspected that the cash was laundered drug proceeds.

The agents watched him as he went to the Galleria to shop, eat in restaurants and even go to a movie. He'd leave the cash-filled bag in the room, without any locks on it.

When the man left his room to check out on May 26, federal agents confronted him in the hallway outside his room and asked him to step into the room where they'd organized their stakeout.

He seemed "shocked" as he walked to the room with his bags, Michael Booker, an assistant special agent in charge with the federal Homeland Security Investigations in Houston, told the Chronicle.

"This was a well-dressed, clean-cut individual staying at a high-end hotel," Booker told the paper. "You never would have suspected it."

Ultimately, the man told the agents that he was given the money and was told to deliver it; he said he knew nothing more. Since it's not illegal to carry around large sums of money, the man was let go.

But since there are federal laws on the books for bulk-cash smuggling, the money stayed. It will go to the National Treasury Forfeiture Fund to support crime-fighting efforts.

http://travel.usatoday.com/hotels/post/ ... h/173076/1

Since it's not illegal to carry around large sums of money, the man was let go.

But since there are federal laws on the books for bulk-cash smuggling, the money stayed.

If the man did commit a crime, shouldn't he get his day in court? Why would the feds let someone go that they say smuggled almost a million dollars? I swear our laws are getting more and more difficult for me to understand at times. Personally, I don't think the the feds should have confiscated the money if they didn't charge the smuggler. If a crime was committed, the guilty party needs to be charged and punished, not released.

Come on this guy was up to something slim shady, the Feds should've took his money and hucked his ass back over the fence and let him explain it to the cartels!