Posted on 06/03/2011 8:25:09 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd
A well-dressed Mexican man checked into the ritzy Westin Oaks Hotel last week, bringing with him a large, black rolling suitcase and a gym bag packed with nearly $1 million in cash.
For at least two days, the man came and went from the Galleria-area hotel room like any tourist, shopping in Houston’s mega-mall, dining in local restaurants and even taking in a movie, authorities said.
All the while, federal agents watched him, acting on a tip that the man was tied into money laundering for a drug trafficking organization.
As he went to check out May 26, federal agents confronted him in the hallway outside his room. They asked him to step into another hotel room where they’d coordinated their stakeout.
The man seemed “shocked,” and complied, bags in tow, said Michael Booker, an assistant special agent in charge with the federal Homeland Security Investigations in Houston. He didn’t act surprised to find the money in the bags, agents said, but he did play dumb rather well.
“He immediately said, ‘I don’t know anything about the money. It was given to me, and I was told to deliver it,’” Booker said.
And, offering agents little to go on, he walked away from the money and the hotel room. Booker said they didn’t have enough to hold the man.
“Unfortunately, it’s not illegal to carry around large sums of money,” Booker said. “We do have laws on the books for bulk-cash smuggling, but you have to meet certain criteria.”
Booker said agents suspect the money was laundered drug proceeds that were headed back to Mexico.
He said the man, who was in the U.S. on a valid visa, said the money was to be delivered to someone in Houston, but didn’t provide information on the drop-off. So HSI agents were left with the luggage, packed tight with $20 and $10 bills, totaling $995,020.
The cash will end up in the National Treasury Forfeiture Fund, which is used to support crime-fighting efforts, said Gregory Palmore, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman.
Booker said HSI agents were taken aback that the man was so casual carrying a million dollars. He had no locks on the luggage, and the cleaning staff came in and out of his room every day, Booker said.
“This was a well-dressed, clean-cut individual staying at a high-end hotel,” Booker said. “You never would have suspected it.”
Look. I know all about how corrupt cops look for search and seizure ways and twist asset forfeiture laws to there advantage (SARC!)
But seriously, I do know how many FReeprs are just way too happy to surrender in the war on drugs and let these millions of dollars funnel back into Mexico so the cartels can continue to wage war on America.
But if we want to take seriously the WOD, then yeah. confiscate this money.
Anyone really wanna tell me this money isn't drug related?
Maybe he works for Bernanke and the magic printing press.
I’d wonder if all the cash was even genuine.
Anyone really wanna tell me this money isn’t drug related? ..................................... If the agents were seen sniffing wads of bills, it might have been. ??
Not that I will ever have anywhere near $1 million in cash to lug around in a carry-on bag, but I find the statement "unfortunately, it's not illegal to carry around large sums of money" from a public official a bit troubling. Logically, this means that hte official believes that it SHOULD BE illegal to carry around large sums of money. This means that there are actually people walking around wasting valuable oxygen who sincerely believe that the government should have the power to tell the people how much cash they can walk around carrying. THAT to me is much more alarming than the possibility that some drug money will find its way back to Mexico.
No one is serious about ever winning the so called WOD. It is better to keep the game going. Not only does it provide for never ending budget outlays for LE but adds the added benefit of money seizures. At least the criminals are honest about what they are doing....breaking the law, providing drugs to the users and all the havoc and violence that goes along with it. The COPS and the authorities are the ones running the scam and allowing it to go on and on.
Thank you for the explanation of how troubling this goon's comment was.
“Unfortunately, it’s not illegal to carry around large sums of money,” Booker said.
When government officers start to admit how they really feel, it is time to be afraid, really afraid.
Anyone really wanna tell me this money isn't drug related?
And, offering agents little to go on, he walked away from the money and the hotel room. Booker said they didn’t have enough to hold the man.
So, they didn't have enough evidence to even HOLD the guy, let alone indict or convict, but you are OK with the confiscation of the money? How much cash should you or I be allowed to carry around before it becomes "too much" or "more than we need" or whatever criteria the government decides sufficient for confiscation with no due process.
You show me 100 people walking around with a million bucks. Heck you show me TEN people with a million dollars in cash - who are not drug runners.
And you think the government is wrong to be suspicious??
Come on. Be honest here. If you think “THAT to me is much more alarming than the possibility that some drug money will find its way back to Mexico”, then why not admit you think we should surrender in the WOD, and just go all Ron Paul regarding crime?
paul51.
No doubt you picked that name after your hero Ron Paul? He too wants to waive the white flag on crime and legalize drugs.
Hoo boy!
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
I can't imagine how anyone could misinterpret the fifth amendment, or any part of the Constitution, for that matter. It's written in plain English. Some "Free"pers can't read, it seems.
I’m wondering how this story would play out in Pima county.
For those in Rio Linda, translation: This boy’s $hit will be dead in 72 hrs. Maybe 48.
Could be a payoff to the Feds.
To me this indicates how LENIENT our drug laws are.
“...they didn’t have enough to hold the man.”
BS. They SHOULD have held the man. Anyone with half a brain knows this Mexican is engaging in crime.
But noooo.. This is just more special treatment for illegal immigrants and Mexican cartels.
It amazes me how so many FReepers can be all anti-illegal immigration, yet pro-cartel - pro-drug law.
You know, things like "... nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation."
It should go without saying that if the government cannot ESTABLISH that laws have been violated then it cannot seize property (including large amounts of cash). And suspicion or even "common sense" is not an adequate burden of proof.
The funny thing is you will call me a Ron Paul Losertarian on this thread while others will call me a statist for my position that we still need to enforce our drug laws.
This doesn’t pass the smell test.
They had enough evidence that this guy is involved in a drug gang or with criminals to do surveillance and have a stake-out. They had that evidence, but then don’t have evidence to arrest the guy? But they do have evidenc to keep the money?????
Something is left out of the story. How can you have enough evidence to keep someone under surveillance, waiting for your chance to arrest them, but at the moment of truth, he can just walk away because you don’t have enough to hold him?
At a bare minimum, what a waste of police resources, if they truly didn’t have the evidence they needed before they went on the stake-out.
This doesn’t pass the smell test.
They had enough evidence that this guy is involved in a drug gang or with criminals to do surveillance and have a stake-out. They had that evidence, but then don’t have evidence to arrest the guy? But they do have evidence to keep the money?????
Something is left out of the story. How can you have enough evidence to keep someone under surveillance, waiting for your chance to arrest them, but at the moment of truth, he can just walk away because you don’t have enough to hold him?
At a bare minimum, what a waste of police resources, if they truly didn’t have the evidence they needed before they went on the stake-out.
Illegal Manuel Mejia Ordonez ordered to repay $3M in Calif employment fraud
San Francisco Chronicle | June 26, 2010
FR Posted June 26, 2010 by artichokegrower
A former Marysville resident has been sentenced to prison and ordered to pay back $3 million in fraudulently obtained unemployment compensation. US Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner said 31-year-old Manuel Mejia Ordonez was sentenced to eight years and one month in prison for conspiracy to commit mail fraud and identity theft. (Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
QUESTION How does a citizen of Mexico make $3 million in unemployment claims? A. By establishing multiple identities. The fraudster, Manuel Mejia Ordonez, got eight years for conspiracy to commit mail fraud........and identity theft.
===============================================
Illegal Jose Madrigal, the Washington state rapist, had some 30 identities.
=================================================
REFERENCE Hayward, California woman charged in mass thefts of IDs
Henry K. Lee / Copyright San Francisco Chronicle. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Oakland Police Dept Mug Shot: Mishel Caviness, Hayward, accused of
running a large-scale operation devoted to stealing people's identities.
HAYWARD, CALIFORNIA -- A Hayward woman has been charged with numerous felony counts for allegedly running an identity-theft operation that created fake Social Security and California identification cards, checks and credit cards. Mishel Caviness, 40, was arrested after an investigation by Oakland police and the U.S. Secret Service.
The probe began when an Oakland city employee reported in January that someone was fraudulently cashing her checks, according to police Officer Ryan Goodfellow and court records. Caviness was identified with the help of surveillance-camera footage from Bay Area stores, police said.
A search of her apartment on the 21000 block of Foothill Boulevard in Hayward last week uncovered a printing operation capable of making fake checks and credit cards, police said. Also found were 900 blank credit cards, personal information belonging to as many as 1,000 people, blank checks and computers, police said.
Alameda County prosecutors charged Caviness with forgery, identity theft, forgery of a driver's license and grand theft. She has a previous conviction for welfare fraud and told police that she is disabled and unemployed. She is being held at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin in lieu of $325,000 bail.
SOURCE http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/05/16/BAPP1JGPTT.DTL#ixzz1MotxGM5R Page C - 3 of the San Francisco Chronicle
========================================
July 21, 2006----BERGEN RECORD, NJ
Texans accused of selling counterfeit IDs (impoverished illegals "here for a better life" pay several thousand $$$ for fake ID's)
Pelcastre brothers, Angel and Jorge, Dallas, Texas, were a walking threat to US national security, expert document forgers who, for a few thousand dollars, could give anyone a new identity, NJ L/E authorities said. The Texas brothers were a "one-stop shop" for a myriad of fake US documents, including birth certificates, Social Security cards, driver's licenses----for any state in the US------ passports and resident alien cards, said state police.
The Texas brothers turned a NJ hotel room into a business office and were readying a massive cache of fake Social Security cards for delivery to a local NJ identity broker. Officers happened upon two cars bearing Texas plates in a NJ hotel parking lot. Authorities wouldn't identify the NJ hotel by name for fear it would spark retribution. The Drug Interdiction Task Force regularly runs checks.
The Texas brothers were followed to a NJ office supply store nearby where they purchased computer supplies. Officers then followed the Texans to a NJ storage facility in Secaucus, NJ, where the Texans loaded several boxes into a car. One of them stood lookout. Authorities approached the Texas brothers when they returned to the NJ hotel and questioned them separately.
The Texas brothers consented to a search. Police recovered laminating sheets with built-in security features, pages of blank documents waiting for fake names and information, finished documents, computers and software to create the fake IDs. All told, the haul was worth about $500,000 on the street when sold to "impoverished illegals." Police also recovered $6,000 in cash, which was the first payment from a NJ fake document broker for a shipment of 500 phony Social Security cards. ####
Suspicious, sure.
Proof?
I guess that’s where your reasoning falls apart.
The WO(S)D is a complete failure.
You use the word “surrender”, but really it’s just a matter of STOPPING the goddamned thing.
Perhaps you are unaware that each night he and his brother Agents wage war on the cartels. He and his peers are deadly serious as it is a deadly war, with the cartels getting more and more violent and migrating this violence north into America and increasingly directing that violence towards the Agents.
My son has been injured taking down smugglers, and he and his peers are angry at Washington over a noneffective policy of not building a wall and tying their hands. They are very much motivated to end the smuggling. They are doing a job that many drug-users in the states will never understand and frankly, the drug-users cry the loudest for the WOD to end, as the cost of their drugs would then fall.
Fact.
So your comment that the “COPS” are in on some sort of “scam” is a direct insult of the men on the border, fighting daily and nightly, to keep the violence at bay and to protect this great nation.
The nearly 20,000 Border Patrol Agents are dedicated and focused and unafraid as they literally fight the cartels and, at times, the mexican army. Some Agents die, some get injured (like my son), but nonetheless, they all are willing to go out there and do their very best as they fight the WOD.
They are in no way part of a “scam” and to accuse them of this is an insult to the men serving and to those that died fighting this war.
What if it's $5,000 instead of a million? What if it's $10,000? What if it is $25,000? How about $60,000? What about $150,000? At what point does the amount of cash money being carried demonstrate that it is drugs? And who gets to make that call? Just because I don't want to "wave the white flag" in the war on drugs does not mean that I am as willing as you apparently are to wave the white flag in the continuing war to preserve our liberty. May your chains rest lightly upon your shoulders.
smoking SWAT-created crater...
Nope.
This kind of thing happens far too often.
The Cartel knows that the police have the cash, and they look at it as a very small cost of doing business. Much worse cost incurred when you start executing your loyal employees.
Acting on a tip they were watching the suspect. That was so they wouldn’t be watching the other guy that was moving 30 million out of another hotel.
Yeah. . .that is why they had a press announcement on this.
It appears the Mexican Drug Cartel just made a payment to Obama for his undying loyalty and persistant effort to keep the borders wide open.
How many other contributions have the Drug Cartel made to politicians to keep the border open?
“Since I posted this, I get to be first before the “they should have let the man keep the money” comments.”
They should have let him keep funeral expenses at least. When he goes back and says the money was grabbed he’ll have to bury a family member.
You don’t arrest the man, just the money.
Nope.
Kill him, as it is easy to get another dummy to run the cash and drive home the point to the next dummy better be careful when protecting their assets.
Cartels do not have loyal employees that they forgive.
Life is cheap to them and taking a life is nothing to the cartels.
Never a reply about the constitutionality of confiscating property from people without due process. Amazing, isn’t it, that some on this site just overlook our natural, God-given rights when convenient.
They should have done a bait and switch when he went to the movie. They could have then gotten the drop off person. Bait and switch is the same thing anthony wiener pulled with a dildo.
“Unfortunately, it’s not illegal to carry around large sums of money,”...but whenever we catch someone with it, we take it and the owner must take us to court to get it back, unless we threaten them enough.
“At what point does the amount of cash money being carried demonstrate that it is drugs?”
It’s $11.00! Didn’t you know? Why eleven freakin’ dollars?
That’s the cost of a pack of cigarettes in New York City.
Can law enforcement confiscate the $11.000 you are carrying to go by nicotine-on-a-stick? Of course they can! They can pretty much do anything they want these days! They can even forfeit your life and your dog’s if they so desire and not be held accountable.
“Acting on a tip they were watching the suspect. That was so they wouldn’t be watching the other guy that was moving 30 million out of another hotel.”
or We’ll tell you where the $1M is when the van with the real money gets across the bridge.
Our war on drugs is absolutely insane. The illegality of drugs is what makes a very inexpensive product astronomically expensive. The profits from the drug trade have Mexico on the verge of being a failed state. If Mexico fails, the spillover from this into the United States will be catastrophic.
There is only two ways to solve the problem. The first way is the "Singapore Solution." In Singapore if you sell illegal drugs you are hung. If you use drugs you will have short but extremely unpleasant stay in their penal system. There is no ACLU in Singapore.
Legalization will also solve the crime problem associated with drugs. If you can get "your fix" for few bucks, it is not necessary to rob and or kill me to obtain the money.
A goodly percentage of those that use drugs will eliminate themselves by overdose, if they have access to plentiful and cheap drugs. That is good and society will be better off for their demise. A small percentage of the drug users will decide they do not want to be addicts. Society should help those individuals "kick the addiction." Either of the two solutions above will work. What we have now does not work, will not work, and is a total failure. However, the United States is not ready to execute some kid for selling a small amount of drugs. This leave the second option as the only workable answer.
Please note that alcohol consumption went down after prohibition was repealed.
Also note that, I do not use drugs.
I see where you are coming from. My question is if they did not have any legitimate reason to hold the man, how could they justify taking the money? If some laws need to be tweaked to cover these situations- then they need to get after it. I don’t like the idea that they had no reason to hold him but could confiscate the money. Getting drug money off the street is great, would have been better if they would have been able to get him off the street, and possibly information from his arrest might have led to others in the organization.
Yes, and that is a greater danger to us than the drug trade.
It is not the government’s money. Why do they get to seize it?
How many other contributions have the Drug Cartel made to politicians to keep the border open?
______________________________________________
But don’t you see? If we listen to the libs here and just legalize the stuff, ALL our problems will just disappear and the Cartels will be run out of business.
No seriously. That is what these liberaltarians are claiming. (lolol) Surrender in the WOD. (ROFLMAO)
Whether the government is right or wrong to be suspicious, my problem is with the notion that the government has the authority to seize property just because they are suspicious.
I'm still waiting for your answer regarding what sum of money you are willing to accept as a maximum threshold beyond which the government can simply seize at will? And who in government has your approval to adjust that threshold downward?
Legalization will also solve the crime problem associated with murder too. And rape. And every other crime.
Are you listening to yourself?
And what if you do get your way and legalize drope? You relly want to increase the dopers and addicts a hundred fold in our neighborhoods? You really want our children having access to dope as easliy as they do beer and alcohol
Liberalism is a mental disease. And here is your spokesman:
While I've seen a few comments about the "failure" of the WOD, most of the comments I've seen are more about the constitutioanl problems of seizure of property without due process and the like. Apparently some here believe that the only way to fight against the drug cartels is to surrender our liberties.
Just out of curiosity, when you chose your screen name, was "Capitulation1st_Responsibility2nd_FreedomMayeSomeday" too long to fit?
The kicker here:
“Unfortunately it is not illegal to carry around large amounts of money.”
Why? Why is it unfortunate being able to carry around large amounts of money is illegal? Who determines what “large” is?
I mean, if the cops want to investigate suspicious people for actual CRIMES and find a lot of money tied to criminal behavior, great. DO THE EFFING POLICE WORK.
But why is it so terrible people can walk around with “lots” of money and that is legal - how awful. Makes me shudder.
Effing government morons. THEY ought to be illegal. Idiots like this scare me more than a guy with a suitcase full of money.
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