Posted on 07/12/2009 11:34:16 PM PDT by Cindy
Note: The following text is a quote:
July 9, 2009
Global G-8 operation targeting cash couriers nets more than $7 million
NAPLES, Italy - Law enforcement agencies from the Group of Eight (G-8) countries announced today the results of an unprecedented multilateral cash courier operation, which netted more than $3.5 million dollars in 81 cash seizures and detected another $4.2 million in undeclared currency at ports of entry around the world.
The operation was developed through the G8 Roma/Lyon group and illustrates the value of close, real-time, international collaboration in identifying and fighting currency smuggling. Cash smuggling is a crime that impacts every society. Organized crime syndicates and terrorists employ couriers every day to move the funds necessary to support their illicit operations while hoping to avoid detection. Cash couriers use a variety of methods to smuggle cash; however, commercial airlines are preferred because many foreign destinations can be reached quickly with little or no pre-planning required. With this operation, the G8 has shown the strong role it can play in keeping innocent citizens safe from crime by denying criminals critical assets.
During the three-day operation authorities examined hundreds of flights at multiple international airports. An examination conducted by British authorities led to the arrest of a 17-year old female who was apprehended as she attempted to leave the United Kingdom while carrying approximately £380,000 (approximately $550,000) in her checked luggage. UK officials discovered the currency on a flight destined to Vietnam. A search of her UK residence by UK authorities led to the seizure on an additional £12,000 (approximately $17,000). She now faces criminal charges in the United Kingdom.
"Smuggled currency fuels terrorism and criminal activity around the world," said U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano. "This successful operation demonstrates the strength of international cooperation to combat common threats and ensure mutual security."
"The G8 ministerial meeting of Justice and Home Affairs held in Rome a month ago," said Italian Minister of the Interior Roberto Maroni, "showed us that the aggression of criminal wealth is a key to fight transnational organized crime. In this vein, Operation Mantis is a perfect example of what has to be done in order to attain our common objectives in terms of law enforcement and enhancement of security, both domestically and internationally".
The operation is the result of two years of intense dialogue among the G8 countries and supports the objectives of Financial Action Task Force Special Recommendation IX. At the 2007 G-8 Summit in Germany, heads of state called on their law enforcement agencies in the Roma/Lyon group to maximize information sharing, support law enforcement investigations and facilitate the enforcement of cash declarations. This operation is a major step towards accomplishing this mission.
"By cutting off their supply of ill-gotten and illegally smuggled gains, ICE and our international partners can deliver a crippling blow to the criminals networks that depend on bulk cash smugglers to move their money around the globe," said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Assistant Secretary John Morton.
During the operation, G-8 members shared real-time information and intelligence in order to further target and interdict cash couriers. In addition to intelligence sharing, airports in many G-8 countries employed a variety of methods to detect cash carried in baggage, on travelers, or in shipments. Detection methods included the use of currency detector dogs, X-ray and gamma-ray equipment, body searches and ion mobility scanners.
"Multinational enforcement efforts, such as Operation Mantis, disrupt crime and terrorist organizations' source of income," said CBP Acting Commissioner Jayson Ahern. "By seizing the funds they use to support their operations, these organizations are increasingly struggling against the combined efforts of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and our G-8 partners. We stand resolved to confront their operations at every turn."
Bulk cash smuggling is the act of concealing currency and/or reportable monetary instruments with the intent of evading currency reporting requirements, in an attempt to transfer or transport the currency or monetary instrument across an international border. Led by the DHS, ICE and CBP in conjunction with its partner G-8 countries, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom, this joint operation aimed to disrupt and dismantle criminal organizations that use cash couriers to move their illicit gains around the world.
Participating Agencies:
CANADA - Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and the Financial Transactions Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) FRANCE - French Customs GERMANY - German Customs ITALY - Guardia di Finanza JAPAN - Japan Customs UNITED KINGDOM - The UK Border Agency/HM Revenue & Customs. The Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) FIU and various Police Forces UNITED STATES - U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The G-8 is a multilateral group consisting of the world's major industrial democracies: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States. The G-8 addresses a wide range of international economic, political, and security issues. The Roma/Lyon group is comprised of experts from the Interior, Justice, Foreign and other ministries and the police services and is the main forum for G-8 cooperation on fighting terrorism and organized crime.
-- ICE --
sp=GLOBAL
Now i understand why they teenagers in pretty dresses and skirts to the G8..................../sarc
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When did carrying large sums of money become a crime? Unless they can prove that the money came from criminal sources how is it a crime?
There's a War on Terror going on here - they'll tell you what the law is.
I don’t know if you travel, but here’s just one example (from 2006 and the information might have been updated since then) regarding carrying cash:
Quote:
It is legal to transport any amount of currency or other monetary instruments
into or out of the United States. However, if you transport, attempt to transport,
or cause to be transported (including by mail or other means) currency or other
monetary instruments in an aggregate amount exceeding $10,000 or its foreign
equivalent) at one time from the United States to any foreign country, or into the
United States from any foreign country, you must file a report with U.S. Customs
and Border Protection. This report is called the Report of International Transpor-
tation of Currency or Monetary Instruments, FinCEN Form 105. Furthermore,
if you receive in the United States, currency or other monetary instruments in
an aggregate amount exceeding $10,000 (or its foreign equivalent) at one time,
which has been transported, mailed, or shipped to you from any foreign place,
you must also file a FinCEN Form 105. This form can be obtained at all U.S. ports
of entry and departure or on the Web at www.fincen.gov/fin105_cmir.pdf.
Monetary instruments include:
1) U.S. or foreign coins and currency;
2) Traveler checks in any form;
3) Negotiable instruments (including checks, promissory notes,
and money orders) that are either in bearer form, endorsed
without restriction, made out to a fictitious payee, or other-
wise in a form that the funds can be transferred to another
person;
4) Incomplete instruments (including checks, promissory
notes, and money orders) signed, but with the payee’s name
omitted; and
5) Securities or stock in bearer form or otherwise in a form that
the funds can be transferred to another person.
However, the term “monetary instruments” does not include:
1) Checks or money orders made payable to the order of a
named person which have not been endorsed or which bear
restrictive endorsements;
2) Warehouse receipts; or
3) Bills of lading.
Reporting is required under the Currency and Foreign Transaction Reporting
Act (PL 97-258, 31 U.S.C. 5311, et seq.), as amended. Failure to comply can
result in civil and criminal penalties and may lead to forfeiture of your monetary
instrument(s).
U.S. Customs and Border Protection ports can be located at
www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/toolbox/ports/.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection
Washington, D.C. 20229
CBP: Securing America’s Borders
Please visit the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Website at www.cbp.gov
CBP Publication No. 0000-0503 Revised June 2006
Whatever happened to those Japanese guys that were caught with billions of dollars in US bonds?
I don’t know what their final outcome was/is, but here’s the thread I was updating with last post on June 19, 2009:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2269335/posts
LOL yup there’s a War on Drugs too.....there’ll be a War on Guns soon enough.
Even during the Clintoonian years, it was against the law to try and carry more than $10,000 out of the country or into the country.
In the early part of the Clintooning of America, my wife and I flew to the UK for a few weeks.
We basically had minimal cash, a couple of hundred in American money, two hundred UK Pounds, and about a hundred France Francs. We planned to use our ATM cards and our AMX cards if there were no ATM’s.
Apparently my two fly rods, reels, lines and flies that I carried on, the plane and some of my wife’s jewelry she carried on triggered us a possible candidates. We were question by a bureaucrat twice, once before boarding and on the plane.
He and his igor refused to believe that we were going overseas with so little money. They were delaying our takeoff and finally my wife said loudly, “Arrest me, I’m carrying several million $’s secretely!” Then she added a few choice words that only he heard.
He backed off and said that we could fly with the rest of the passengers.
The return flight from the UK was about the same and maybe more intense. I had bought two large Wheatley custom wood Fishing Fly display boxes with and assortment of flies at Harrods. At that time we had spent all but a couple of Pounds and all the Francs and had very little America money,enough for tips and to pay the bridge toll back home. They wanted to know how we managed to stay in the UK with a day trip to France with so little cash coming in. I had the ATM receipts which answered that.
The intrusion of big brother in our lives for our own good has become out of control. And what bothers me the most those in power our elected representatives with a wave of the hand or the flash of an id are simply waved right on through with no baggage checks or physical scans and these folks could be carrying on God knows what. It is beyond major BS!
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