This business about security checkpoint workers (now the TSA) keeping an eye on how much money you have has been going on for quite some time.

I remember one case I read that was the United States v. $125,000 (or some similar amount). In the case it said that security checkpoint workers get paid $250 by the DEA to turn in people with drugs or large sums of money. The DEA then, thanks to our draconian forfeiture laws as part of the war on drugs, then comes in an seizes your money. After months, if not years, and thousands and thousands of dollars, sometimes you MAY be able to get some of your money back.

The DEA has been known to confiscate money without even providing a receipt.

This is a really awful situation, but not enough people know or care about it.

d

BS it is but the forfeiture laws have been around a lot longer than the past 2 years.

True, but until recently, the USA didn't employ 49,000 agents to look at travelers' cash at the airport checkpoints. Customs had their look, but only when someone crossed the border.

I'd bet money that is the case as well. Apparently China's most wanted citizen is under house arrest in Vancouver for using false documents to board a flight in Hong Kong. This is a pretty high profile case as Canada won't deport someone if they're facing the death penalty, he for sure is.

For the record, I've flown from Asia a few times lately and haven't had them checking papers on the skybridge, but i've gotten the once-over from customs a couple of times since I'm also in the single/male/young profile.

I'm quite familiar with the DEA loving to get their hands on large sums of cash you may be carrying (becuase of course people only carry large sums of cash if they are a drug dealer!). But for them to use the TSA, who should be spending their focus and time looking for weapons to worry about money and drugs is just lame.

Although I often get the grilling from customs - once in a while they talk me in circles asking the same questions twice, to which I often crack smart ... answers back to when it starts to piss me off - but they have never asked to look at my luggage.

I`ll just add, that even withdrawing $10,000+ from a bank account in the US has to be declared. This, apparently, is putting Rush Limbaugh (an ...) in dire straits as he apparently withdrew $9900+ numerous times, loopholing that limit for his Oxycontin (according to the press). I never knew that requirement until that Limbaugh investigation was promoted.

Personally, I think $20,000 should be a new limit, like Japanese have. Especially as the economy expands. We also need $1000.00 bills again and higher incomes, naturally. We had 500 and 1000 before, so why not now.

No, previously they were private employees looking for cash. Like I said two posts above yours, the DEA was (and probably still is) paying screeners money for tips on drugs or drug money. Traveling with a lot of cash has always been a major concern for professional gamblers who don't want it confiscated without cause by the DEA.

This is called "structuring" and that's also illegal.

If anything, after 9/11, the government has been wanting to lower the limit and increase the scrutiny. I heard rumors that it told casinos (which are subject to basically the same rules as banks) to being suspicious of anything over $5000.

As for the larger denominations, I don't see that much need. Maybe a $500 or $1000, but even then, people don't use that much cash anymore, and the US government is increasingly interested in cracking down on it.

d

You are only as free as you think you are. I have never thought we were really "free" in the U.S. Live a life without harming, stealing, or exploiting anyone, but get caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, especially if you are poor, then the illusion of being "free" becomes a nightmare. Just ask the people of Tulia, TX.

Like the illusion of airport security, we have the illusion of being free. Today I was not free to purchase the medication from the pharmacy because I did not government-required permission. I am not free to vacation in Cuba. I am not free to travel without being searched, questioned, and possibly detained. And lately, you are only free to protest bush so long as you do it somewhere that you can't be seen or heard.

I have carried $10k to Vegas before. What if someone got wind of my cash and reported it? Would I have been free to continue? Anonymously? Without delay, search or seizure? Remember, I was a law-abiding citizen that worked for every penny of that money. But had the threads of fortune allowed some "nationalist patriot" to glance into my money bag, let his imagination run, and sound the alarm that I must be either a terrorist, bank robber, drug dealer, or mob member, then what? I doubt I would have been "free".

The war on terrorism exists so that those who are wealthy and powerful can continue to gain more wealth and power at the expense of everyone else. It is not that inventive, industrious, hard-working, or gifted people cannot amass great wealth; it is those who defraud, cheat, steal, and oppress others that I despise. Specifically, I am speaking of the imperialists who are exploiting the people's of other countries, backing it with assassination and war, then masking it in nationalist PR.

The travel ban on Cuba is not about the embargo to punish Cuba, it is about not allowing the seeds of rebellion to grow against Capitalism.

Drug laws are not about any concern for people using drugs, they are purely political. History says that drug laws were passed to deport aliens, restrict minorities, and suppress populist movements. I suspect the current drug laws also give doctors and the pharmaceuticals a restricted monopoly on medicine.

We may be more free than in some countries, but you are only as free as does not clog the machinery.

"Real patriots read, understand, and honor the Constitution! http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/tocs/toc.html - Aubie