Men found with $240K in cash on Mexico-bound bus in Hidalgo
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March 22, 2011 8:57 AM
By JARED TAYLOR/The Monitor

HIDALGO — An apparent attempt for a young man to take his father’s money to build a house for his mom ended at the U.S.-Mexico border early Sunday morning.

Customs officers said they found two men with more than $240,000 in wads of cash on a Mexico-bound bus early Sunday morning.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers working southbound inspections at the McAllen-Hidalgo-Reynosa International Bridge asked half the passengers to get off a Tornado commercial bus headed for Mexico, according to a criminal complaint filed Monday in U.S. District Court in McAllen.

As the passengers disembarked, an officer noticed 21-year-old Fabian Reyna had several bundles of money sticking out from his pocket. A pat-down of his body uncovered 13 bundles of cash that totaled $130,000, according to the complaint.

A second passenger on the bus appeared to be nervous, officers said. Raul Medina, 26, was found with 11 bundles of cash that totaled $110,000 in the seat in front of him.

Medina told U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents that Reyna asked him to help move the cash from Houston to Reynosa, according to the complaint. As customs officers searched the bus, Medina said he was nervous and put the cash bundles on the bus floor.

Reyna told investigators his father contacted him about a year ago to fetch the cash and take it to Mexico, according to the complaint. But Reyna said he never planned on turning over the cash to his dad. Instead, he planned on building a house for his mother in Mexico.

The men, who were arrested Sunday, remain in federal custody. Each made an initial appearance Monday in U.S. District Court in McAllen. A detention hearing in their case is set for Wednesday.

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