Originally Posted by
chollie
Can't remember the airport, but a few months back, TSOs summoned LEOs at the checkpoint. IIRC, the woman had several consecutively numbered personal checks in a pocket. The TSOs found the checks and decided she was cleaning out the joint bank accounts and running away from her husband.
Wow, that's way over the top. I can't see how it is TSA's place to make that determination.
TSOs, they are still allowed/required to report large amounts of currency, particularly if the pax won't tell them how much money there is.
Yes, they are, most likely because large sums of cash in carry-on bags could be the proceeds of criminal activity.
it is supposedly not illegal to carry large sums of cash in the US.
You are correct. Currently, there are no laws regulating the transportation of any amount of any currency within USA borders. However, it is mighty suspicious to be carrying large sums (say over $10,000) of cash through an airport. These days, people use plastic for almost everything. For large deposits like on vehicles and homes, most people use cashier's checks. Why would somebody need to carry that much cash in bank notes? It is very suspicious.
Also, according to a 2009
study by Dr. Yuegang Zuo, Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Massachusetts--Dartmouth, on average 90% of the U.S. paper currency in circulation is contaminated with cocaine residue. I suppose that if one were carrying enough paper currency, it might be detectable by canine units and/or sensors.
In fact, Dr. Zuo's study found that 100% percent of the sampled bills from the following cities contained cocaine traces: Detroit; Boston; Orlando; Miami; Los Angeles.
Wow!! 100%!