Nogales CBP Officers Seize $290,000 in Illicit Outbound Currency

Nogales, Ariz. — U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers assigned to the Tucson Field Office, a component of the Customs and Border Protection Joint Field Command-Arizona, arrested a Mexican woman for attempting to smuggle more than $290,000 in undeclared U.S. currency into Mexico yesterday. 

CBP officers at the Dennis DeConcini Port were conducting outbound inspections, when they referred a Dodge sedan driven by a 36-year-old Mexican woman for further inspection. During a search of the vehicle, five packages of undeclared U.S. currency totaling a little more than $290,000 were located. The vehicle and the currency were seized and the driver was arrested and turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations

“I congratulate our CBP officers for preventing this large amount undeclared currency from being taken out of the country,” said Area Port Director Guadalupe Ramirez. “Our outbound enforcement team will continue to intercept illicit funds and keep it from reaching the hands of transnational criminal organizations.”

Individuals arrested are charged with a criminal complaint, which raises no inference of guilt. An individual is presumed innocent until competent evidence is presented to a jury that establishes guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

CBP announced the JFC-AZ in February 2011 as an organizational realignment that brings together the U.S. Border Patrol, Air and Marine, and Field Operations under a unified command structure. The JFC-AZ integrates CBP’s border security, commercial enforcement, and trade facilitation missions to more effectively meet the unique challenges faced in Arizona.

CBP's Office of Field Operations is the primary organization within Homeland Security tasked primarily with an anti-terrorism mission at our nation’s ports. CBP officers screen all people, vehicles and goods entering the United States while facilitating the flow of legitimate trade and travel. Their mission also includes carrying out border-related duties, including narcotics interdiction, enforcing immigration and trade laws, and protecting the nation's food supply and agriculture industry from pests and diseases.

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.