Two NRIs arrested for trying to courier USD 29,000
in cash
HOUSTON, July 26, 2005
PTI
NRI, non-resident Indians , staying in Houston
area without legal documentation, have been arrested
for trying to courier USD 29,000 in cash that they
claimed was clothing to South Carolina.
The FBI and immigration authorities who took them
into custody until charges are filed, refused to reveal
their names. Agents are still looking into the source
of the cash and how it was intended to be used.
"The investigation is on-going in conjunction
with ice (immigration and customs enforcement),"
FBI spokesman Al Tribble was quoted as saying by Houston
Chronicle.
"This money could be meant for anything from
terrorism to extortion to fraud or drugs. There's
something bigger behind the scenes," said Tribble.
The investigation began after a clerk employed with
ups courier in the small rural city of Mont Belvieu,
east of Houston in Chambers county, thought a customer
was behaving suspiciously.
Shalia Hampton's suspicions were aroused by a customer
on Monday evening who paid USD 80 to ship a package
overnight. It was supposed to contain only "clothing"
and was sent to someone staying at the French quarter
inn in Charleston, South Carolina.
The customer, wearing an earpiece connected to a
cell phone, appeared to be receiving instructions
about the package from the device, she said. The package
was uninsured.
Minutes after the customer left, the UPS office received
numerous inquiries by telephone from someone with
a strong accent. The caller wanted to know when the
package was "going out" and how to track
it.
This package was shipped, and then the same customer
appeared the next day with a similar package that
he said was clothing, said Hampton.
Not long after the customer left, the caller from
out of the area began to make inquiries again, Hampton
said.
"By this time, my clerk felt that package did
not just contain clothing," she said, and alerted
headquarters who directed a UPS driver to inspect
the box's contents.
The driver found a layer of inexpensive clothing
that was covering three smaller boxes filled with
stacks of USD 100 bills wrapped in carbon paper. "UPS
policy does not allow the shipment of any cash,"
she said.
Since the contents of the package had been misrepresented,
the office alerted Mont Belvieu police and they brought
in the FBI, she said.
UPS, at law enforcement request, did not return the
package and cash to the customer. A specially trained
dog was brought to the office and sniffed the money
and "went crazy," indicating the cash might
have been in contact with drugs or explosives, authorities
said. The customer had given ups one name but had
a different name attached to his phone number, Hampton
said.
Hampton said the customer lived in the Anahuac area
and had tried to mail other packages by UPS from the
Wilcox drug store. "I know some things, but I
can't talk about it now," said Dave Wilcox, who
oversees operations there.
Mont Belvieu's police Chief J.D. Whitman said his
office turned the case over to the FBI. The customer's
home has since been searched and he and another immigrant
have been taken into custody.
The FBI also has been questioning officials at the
hotel where the package was sent.
