Border Patrol traffic stop nets more than $500,000 in suspected drug money
Reporting from San Diego — U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested a 35-year-old woman suspected of smuggling more than $500,000 in suspected drug money after a vehicle stop on Interstate 5 near Oceanside.
Agents stopped the woman’s 2012 Jeep Cherokee about 5 p.m. Wednesday in the southbound lanes of the freeway. During the stop, a Border Patrol dog alerted agents to something at the rear of the vehicle. Agents found a suitcase filled with a large amount of U.S. currency.
The cash totaled $532,596 and is suspected to be proceeds from illegal drug sales.
“This cash seizure denies transnational criminal organizations of illicit proceeds used to run criminal enterprise,” Thomas Blanks, agent in charge of the San Clemente Border Patrol Station, said in a statement.
The woman was turned over to agents from the Department of Homeland Security. The vehicle and money were seized by the U.S. Border Patrol.
Warth writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune
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