Thread: "Oh, I need to declare that $1.1 million hidden in the

Seattle 911: A police blog
http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/seat ... 143273.asp
"Oh, I need to declare that $1.1 million hidden in the cab of my truck?"
You could call it cash and carry. But driving with dollars might be more apt.

Federal officials detained a 31-year-old British Columbia truck driver Thursday, but not for hauling an illegal load of metal fence panels across the U.S.-Canadian border at Blaine.

Rather, they stopped him for carrying $1,130,080 and not declaring the U.S. currency.

The U.S. greenbacks – mainly $10s and $20s but also $1s and $50s – were found in 22 vacuum-sealed bags in the truck's cab, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers reported.

The money was hidden in an area that had two bunks and officers used pry bars to open secret compartments to get the cash.

"My eyes have seen $1 million. I've never seen it," customs spokesman Thomas Schreiber said. "There were a lot of Ben Franklins."

But the amount of $1 bills slowed down the counting process, he added.

A border officer asked the driver, Navraj Bal, to pull over for an X-ray inspection of his tractor and trailer. That scan detected an anomaly in the cab's sleeping bunks.

Officers brought in a dog trained to pick up on the scent of narcotics, Schreiber said. The dog examined the bunk area and "hit" on the odor of narcotics.

Officers found the bunk area contained modified compartments.

Investigators believe the money or cab might have come into contact with drugs – which explains the dog's reaction.

Federal law requires money in excess of $10,000 must be reported to federal officials when it is brought into or taken from the country.

"To us, when we find hidden in a compartment, vacuum-sealed, bundles of money, this is a criminal enterprise," Schreiber said. "Legitimate people keep money in banks."

Schreiber believes the driver, a Surrey resident, denied that he owned the money.

The more than $1.1 million set a record for money found at the Blaine border crossing. In July 2001, officers confiscated $450,000.

Officers turned Bal over to agents with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. A spokeswoman in Seattle declined comment, saying the case is under investigation.

In other border crossing news, truck driver Corey Wirsz of Chilliwack, British Columbia was sentenced Friday in federal court in Seattle to 6.5 years in prison for distributing marijuana.

The 30-year-old also faces four years of supervised release and a $12,500 fine, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Seattle reported.

Federal prosecutors said his big rig had 350 pounds of marijuana – worth about $1.2 million – hidden under the trailer floor when he tried to cross the border at Blaine Aug. 2.

Prosecutors said his tractor-trailer truck had been changed to have a false floor. His attorneys claimed that a drug-trafficking organization left the marijuana in the truck and that Wirsz had meant to buy a different vehicle.

A jury agreed with prosecutors that he broke the law.

Posted by Brad Wong at July 11, 2008 5:27 p.m.
· Return to "Oh, I need to declare that $1.1 million hidden in the cab of my truck?"
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LOL....oopppsss

Nice catch!!

I think more of this in the north is going to happen with the tightening of the Southern border

Saturday, July 12, 2008 - Page updated at 09:57 AM



$1 million seized at Blaine-area border crossing
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers seized more than $1 million in U.S. currency from a Canadian man attempting to enter the U...

By Peter Jensen

The Bellingham Herald

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers seized more than $1 million in U.S. currency from a Canadian man attempting to enter the U.S. at the Pacific Highway border crossing Thursday morning.

The seizure is the largest on record for Blaine-area border crossings, said Thomas Schreiber, a Customs and Border Protection spokesman.

Navraj Bal, 31, of Surrey, B.C., was arrested on suspicion of making false statements to officers, according to charging documents from the U.S. Attorney's Office in Seattle. If convicted, Bal could face five years in prison and fines totaling $250,000.

Failing to declare more than $10,000 cash when entering the United States can result in arrest and fines. Bal was booked into Whatcom County Jail Thursday afternoon, then transferred to federal prison in Seattle Friday morning.

He made an initial appearance in U.S. District Court Friday afternoon and remains in custody, said Emily Langlie, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office.

The money was hidden in compartments inside a semi-truck that Bal told officers he was driving to Los Angeles. A drug-sniffing dog discovered the money, Schreiber said.

Schreiber said the dog detected the money because either it came in contact with narcotics or the compartment had been used for drug smuggling. "This is drug money," Schreiber said. "It didn't have a label on it that said, 'I'm drug money,' but you can see money amounts increase as the volume of narcotics increases."

Bal, who works for Accord Transportation LLC in Surrey, told officers that someone he didn't know approached him several weeks ago and told Bal he would pay him $5,000 in exchange for transporting something that was not drugs or guns to Los Angeles, according to charging documents. Bal agreed, and left his tractor-trailer in a parking lot in Surrey and then picked it up Thursday morning and drove it to the border, according to the documents.

Bal does not have a criminal history and participates in the Free and Secure Trade Program, which provides quick passage through border crossings for approved commercial truck drivers. Drivers must pass a criminal background check to be approved for the program, Schreiber said.

Bal has entered the U.S. 21 times this year, according to the charging documents.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/l ... ine13.html

Bal, who works for Accord Transportation LLC in Surrey, told officers that someone he didn't know approached him several weeks ago and told Bal he would pay him $5,000 in exchange for transporting something that was not drugs or guns to Los Angeles, according to charging documents. Bal agreed, and left his tractor-trailer in a parking lot in Surrey and then picked it up Thursday morning and drove it to the border, according to the documents.

Bal does not have a criminal history and participates in the Free and Secure Trade Program, which provides quick passage through border crossings for approved commercial truck drivers. Drivers must pass a criminal background check to be approved for the program, Schreiber said.

Someone he didn't know? LOL, well sucks for him! $5000 is definitely not worth jail time. What a MORON!