Border officials to driver: “No way Jose”
LAREDO, Tex. – Attention drivers. Your FAST card is not — repeat — NOT a Get Out of Jail Free card.
A FAST-carded trucker headed south through Laredo, Tex., had his 1999 Freightliner pulled over for a secondary search Easter Saturday afternoon and the authorities found more than $1 million in undeclared currency.
Busted is 26-year-old Jose Martinez Gonzalez of Neuvo Laredo, Mex., who was driving a ’99 Freightliner pulling a shipment of appliances.
According to a police statement, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers pulled the truck in for a secondary examination and while their truck-sniffing dog alerted them to something fishy in the mattress of the bunk.
They looked more closely and unearthed the million bucks, all wrapped up in tape.
Officials then arrested Martinez Gonzales on federal bulk cash smuggling charges and turned him over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) special agents and the tractor was seized by CBP officers.
Last year, CPB officers at Laredo intercepted more than $3 million in undeclared currency in 146 different seizures. So far this year, it’s been $9.9 million in 62 seizures.
FAST-approved drivers receive less scrutiny than other truckers, but that could change if drivers continue to abuse the system.
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