Nigeria-bound New Jersey man has been nabbed with more than $200,000 unreported currency at Philadelphia International Airport.
It was learnt that U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized the currency on January 22, 2023.
ABC 27 reports that the travellers may carry as much currency and other monetary instruments as they wish, but federal law requires them to report all currency of $10,000 or more.
The U.S. citizen bound for Port Harcourt, Nigeria claimed he possessed $11,000, according to Customers and Border Protection.
Officers found $200,068 in U.S. dollars, during a search of on his luggage and the equivalent of $251.54 in Nigerian Naira for a total of $200,319.54.
This is the third largest unreported currency seizure in the Area Port of Philadelphia since the agency’s inception in 2003, USCBP revealed.
The currency was seized by the CBP officers and remitted $1,251.54 to the traveller for humanitarian purposes and he was released without any criminal charges being filed.
According to the report, Homeland Security Investigations initiated an investigation and will examine the origins of the suspected illicit proceeds.
“This is a significant amount of unreported currency for any traveller to be carrying, especially with today’s electronic systems that make transferring currency much easier,” said Joseph Martella, CBP’s Area Port Director for the Area Port of Philadelphia.
“The most important lesson international travellers can take from this seizure is to truthfully report all currency in their possession to Customs and Border Protection officers when they arrive to or leave the United States.” (SaharaReporters)
