Originally Posted by
RichardKenner
Then let's take a hypothetical here and produce the totality of the situation. A TSO notifies you that somebody has what's obviously a very large amount of money in their bag (say, $20k). The original reason that the TSO went into the person's bag turned out to be nothing (an odd-looking shadow that looked suspicious on x-ray). There's nothing else suspicous about this person.
The person showed the TSO a boarding pass for a domestic flight to a city that could be an international gateway (e.g., JFK, MIA, LAX), but could also be the termination of his travel.
He's polite and answers all questions you ask about his identity. However, when you ask "where did you get the cash?", "are you traveling internationally", and "did you file the form to declare that cash", he politely refuses to answer any of those questions.
Where are you now? What can you do?
You can't hold his refusal to answer the questions against him, nor can you use it to create probably cause or even reasonable suspicion.
Correct.
You know he hasn't commited the crime of taking money out of the country without filing the required papers because he hasn't left the country yet.
Could you even find out from the airline if he was connecting internationally without a warrant?
Yes.
Does carrying that amount of money constitute probably cause to suspect he might be a drug dealer? If so, what would be the next step of the "investigation" if he refused to answer any question that would either admit or deny that fact (and he should not answer any such question for reasons that have been discussed numerous times)?
Really probable cause is established by so many things it's hard to describe. There is a whole world of non-verbals missing here. Demeanor, evasiveness, etc.
Based just what on you wrote, I'd refer it to CBP and let them make the call. It's their purview anyway.
