Thread: U.S. has seized $44 million in outbound inspections

US seizing drug money, but cartels have plenty more

Brady McCombs Arizona Daily Star
March 7, 2010 12:00 am

A U.S. campaign to slow southbound cash that fuels the Mexican drug wars has produced record seizures at Southwest border ports - but it doesn't mean the cartels are going out of business.

Authorities have seized $44 million during inspections of vehicles and people leaving the United States for Mexico over the past 1 1/2 years at U.S. border ports - compared with the $43.6 million seized during the previous four years combined, U.S. Customs and Border Protection figures show.

The cash seizures are a direct result of an increased focus by U.S. port officers on what's leaving the country. The effort began in early 2009 under a White House plan to slow the flow of cash and guns that fuel the raging drug wars in Mexico.

Ports have gradually increased hours of outbound inspections since then, and at some ports, such as the two in Nogales, Ariz., officers now screen vehicles and pedestrians heading into Mexico around the clock.

Such inspections used to be done for only a few hours at a time, and not every day. While Customs and Border Protection officers still don't inspect every car, each driver must slow down and give officers an opportunity to look into the window or ask questions, comparable to a Border Patrol highway checkpoint.

The effort has disrupted the activities of Mexican drug-smuggling organizations, said Steven Stavinoha, director of the outbound-enforcement division at Customs and Border Protection headquarters in Washington, D.C.

"We are taking away that avenue to quickly have cash," Stavinoha said. "They have to find other means to smuggle the money out."

A thorn, not a dagger

But the seizures are likely no more than a thorn in the side of the cartels, said George Grayson, a College of William & Mary professor and author of "Mexico: Narco Violence and a Failed State?"

"It's a good news/bad news story," Grayson said. "It speaks well for those who are at the border doing the inspections, but it also is going to push the cartels toward more exotic ways of moving money that are just about impossible to detect."

As long as demand for drugs remains strong in the United States, Mexican cartels will find a way to get drugs north and cash south, said Oscar J. Martinez, a regents professor of history at the University of Arizona who has written several books about Mexico.

Experts say cartels will likely shift to wire transfers or unregulated stored-value cards (See sidebar) to get money south. They also will continue to devise creative ways to sneak cash through the ports. Officers in Nogales recently found $58,000 in undeclared cash inside the luggage of a 37-year-old woman on a bus heading into Mexico. The money was stuffed in her bags, her clothing and a Mickey Mouse plush toy.

"We are spending more and more money on the war on drugs, but we don't significantly lower consumption," Martinez said. "It's really fighting a futile war you can't win. The government only wins minor battles."

However, forcing cartels to change their strategies makes the syndicates vulnerable, said Guadalupe Ramirez, Customs and Border Protection Nogales port director. "Before, they didn't worry too much. They would get their proceeds and cruise back into Mexico," Ramirez said. "Now they have to work just as hard getting the proceeds back."

The $7.1 million seized at Arizona ports over the past 1 1/2 years is second-most on the Southwest border. The Laredo office, which covers eastern Texas, has seized $31.8 million in that span, customs figures show.

Taken by surprise

On March 3, 2009, Francisco Vera-Moroyoqui pulled into the southbound lanes at the Dennis DeConcini Port of Entry in downtown Nogales with his mother in the front seat and his father in the back seat of a 2007 Dodge Durango.

A customs officer conducting outbound inspections stopped the SUV and began asking questions. He told the three about the U.S. law requiring people to report leaving the country with more than $10,000, and asked if they had anything to declare. Vera-Moroyoqui showed $2,583, his mother $2,500 and his father $528, U.S. court documents show.

Officers searched the Durango and found $1.44 million more in a false compartment in the ceiling.

Vera-Moroyoqui admitted they had agreed to take the money into Mexico, and he and his father pleaded guilty to attempted bulk cash smuggling. Vera-Moroyoqui was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison, and his father, Efren Vera-Romero, was sentenced to three years, court records show. The mother was not charged.

It was one of several huge cash seizures made on the Southwest border in early 2009.

"We as an agency caught them off-guard when we re-established the outbound operations," Customs and Border Protection's Stavinoha said. "We were like, 'Wow.' "

In March 2009, Homeland Security re-established an outbound-enforcement division at Customs and Border Protection headquarters in Washington, D.C. The division existed before Sept. 11, 2001, but was deserted as the government focused on what was coming into the country, Stavinoha said.

The office coordinates southbound-inspection strategies across the border.

During the outbound inspections, officers don't stop every car, but they regularly question drivers and occupants about where they're going, where they're coming from and if they have money to declare.

They often pull over vehicles and conduct full searches of the interior. The agency also has mobile X-ray machines, license-plate readers and money-sniffing dogs available.

Customs and Border Protection has staffed the increased southbound inspections - one aspect of a larger campaign to address the rising violence along the U.S.-Mexico border - by realigning funds from less-urgent activities, fund balances and, in some cases, reprogramming, customs officials said. The agency is hiring 120 additional officers, but ramped-up inspections have been done until now with the same number of officers, Stavinoha said.

Officers are also looking for southbound weapons in the inspections, but those efforts haven't yielded as much success. The agency seized 107 weapons across the Southwest border in fiscal 2009, up from 72 in 2008 and 97 in 2007. Through the first five months of this fiscal year, the agency seized 54 weapons.

Customs and Border Protection is working with other agencies to identify the southbound river of guns, Stavinoha said.

"We are finding the cash, not the weapons," he said.

Cartels reacting

The cartels appear to have already reacted to the increased inspections by sending more loads in smaller amounts.

During the record-setting fiscal year 2009, the average amount of the 415 seizures on the Southwest border was $89,565 - more than double the average seizure in the previous five years, Customs and Border Protection figures show.

Through the first five months of fiscal 2010, the average amount of the 206 seizures dipped to $33,580.

Customs officials expect the cartels have shifted to sending money south through other avenues. "We are squeezing them at the port of entry," Stavinoha said. "We are looking at other venues of how they may smuggle cash out."

U.S. officials plan to continue the increased inspections and hope to improve outbound infrastructure and get more detection equipment to the ports, he said.

Martinez, the UA professor, said it is all part of the eternal cat-and-mouse game on the border between U.S. law enforcement and cartels.

The cartels "have lots of money flowing in and can easily find alternative ways," Martinez said. "It's not really changing anything fundamentally."

coming monday

Authorities want to crack down on stored-value cards.

By the numbers

Customs officers made several large seizures in Arizona recently:

• March 28, 2009: In Douglas, officers found $199,980 hidden in the rear quarter panels of a Lincoln Town Car driven by a 21-year-old U.S. citizen. The man admitted to investigators that he was going to be paid $5,000 to take the money into Mexico.

• Aug. 29, 2009: In Lukeville, officers discovered $131,000 in a garbage bag under a rear seat of a pickup truck driven by a 48-year-old man from Mexico. They also found $29,000 hidden in a waistband worn by a 45-year-old passenger, also from Mexico.

• Sept. 29, 2009: In Nogales, officers found more than $555,000 wrapped in clear packages inside a metal box in the dashboard of a car driven by a 30-year-old man from Mexico. The man admitted to officers that he would be paid $2,000 to drive the cash into Mexico.

• Dec. 14, 2009: In Nogales, officers found $300,000 in a suitcase on the front seat between two men in a pickup truck. The men told officers they were going to be paid $500 each to deliver the money to Nogales, Sonora.

DID YOU KNOW

Federal law allows people to take unlimited amounts of money out of the country, but it requires a person to declare amounts larger than $10,000. Failure to do that is punishable by up to five years in prison, a $250,000 fine or both.

If the non-declaration is in connection with another crime, such as drug smuggling or money laundering, or if the person has failed to declare more than $100,000 over one year, it can be punishable by up to 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine or both.

Contact Brady McCombs at 573-4213 or bmccombs@azstarnet.com

http://azstarnet.com/news/local/govt-an ... b8a6d.html

Anyone know what happens to the money that is seized?

Originally Posted by ReggieMay

Anyone know what happens to the money that is seized?

But where does the money go?

"Those funds generally go into the U.S. Treasury Department forfeiture fund and then it's put back into law enforcement for various purposes."

Federal Agents Seize $40 Mil and 600 Guns From U.S./Mexico Border

http://www.kfoxtv.com/news/21546916/detail.html

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-177462.html