exerda

Oh, this actually happened... at least once that I can recall. I may get some of the details a bit off, but IIRC, a woman traveled to Texas with something like $15k or so in her bag. The TSA called over a LEO, who decided she had to be a drug courier and confiscated the cash. She had claimed she was traveling to get a breast enhancement and wanted to pay in cash.

Now, she probably was a courier, but it just goes to show how unsafe traveling with large amounts of cash can be. Not only are you subject to traditional thieves, but also to the government seizing your cash and making you prove to them it isn't drug-related to get it back (which in courtrooms can be quite difficult--and quite costly!) And remember: when it comes to forfeiture cases, your money is assumed to be "guilty" simply by nature of its existence, unlike (most) criminal cases in which the defendent is presumed innocent.

That case above was entirely domestic in nature. There are countless other cases of the government seizing cash at airports (such as that J-pop artist's mom, who fortunately did win in court--she had the resources to fight it and win, unlike many people).