Authorities arrested a Texas woman who allegedly tried to smuggle $270,000 in cash into Mexico. The woman claimed to have been hired to move the cash on this and prior occasions.
The arrest occurred over the weekend at the Hidalgo Port of Entry, a criminal complaint filed by agents with U.S. Homeland Security Investigations revealed. That is when Ana Paulina Araujo Gonzalez tried to drive from Texas into Mexico but was stopped for an inspection.
Authorities asked her if she was carrying weapons or cash in excess of $10,000, and she said no, court documents revealed. That is when authorities sent her to a secondary inspection area, where they discovered nine bundles of cash hidden in an aftermarket compartment in the vehicle’s front seat.
After officers with U.S. Customs and Border Protection arrested her and turned her over to HSI agents, she told authorities she had previously crossed with cash as part of a job she had been hired to do, the criminal complaint revealed.
This week, Araujo, a U.S. citizen, went before U.S. Magistrate J. Scott Hacker, who notified her of the charges against her and set her bond at $30,000 with a $2,000 deposit.
The smuggling of cash is a common tactic used by drug cartels to move their proceeds back to Mexico. The city of Reynosa, Tamaulipas, has been controlled historically by the Gulf Cartel, one of the six drug cartels labeled by the U.S. Department of State as foreign terrorist organizations.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with the Breitbart News Foundation. He co-founded Breitbart News Foundation’s Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at [email protected].
Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart News Foundation’s Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at [email protected].
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