BUNDLES OF CASH FOUND IN I-10 VEHICLE LAST WEEK
Over $21,000 in cash was seized from a vehicle on Interstate 10 last week.
Fayette County Sheriff Keith Korenek reports that Thursday afternoon at 1:00 PM, Sgt. Randy Thumann and his K9 partner Lobos conducted a traffic stop on a 2014 Chevy Sonic for a traffic violation. Thumann observed several indicators of either drug or money trafficking and asked for consent to search the vehicle. He located a plastic bag containing a new comforter and bundles of cash totaling $21,575. Thumann deployed his K9 partner Lobos who alerted on the bundles of cash for the order of illegal narcotics. Arrested was Karim Tare Martinez-Hernandez of Monterrey, Mexico for money laundering. He was transported to the Fayette County Jail.
What’s your Reaction?
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Asset seizures will more likely continue to increase. A sign of the times and destruction of democracy. Our state is so cash poor due to the deliberate failure to close tax loopholes and levy income taxes on incomes over $300,000 that it is turning court houses into cash registers. Anyone every take note of the high number of attorneys we have for this small town? They are here because of constant opportunity for business. They rake it in, as well as prisons for profit contracted to state. Welcome to the new world.
There’s a solid 5-6 attorneys with offices in town that practice criminal law on a regular basis.
Also, our county’s jail is not run in any capacity by private entities and if you’ll check the budget, you’ll find its the biggest liability/cost in the county. If there’s a cash register in the courthouse, you’d think the sheriff would be able to keep his jailers and deputies.
Consider:
There is always more to the story than what we see here. What if, for example, said person with over $21,000 in their possession had just left a location where they had sold a large amount of drugs to someone, and the money was clearly proceeds of illegal activity? (For the sake of example, – lets assume solid evidence) Or what if they had been fencing stolen goods? (Again, assume strong evidence of such – maybe a bunch of stolen guns?) Would you think it appropriate to confiscate those illegally obtained funds?
If Mr. Martinez-Hernandez can demonstrate legitimate sourcing of the $21,575.00 then it should (and will0 be returned to him. After all, – most of us would be able to document how and when we acquired such a substantial sum of cash. And if 90% of cash tests positive for drugs (the source of that statistic was not provided), then an alert for drugs really would not be compelling evidence of illegal activity.
Wait, so you’re saying the accused has to prove their innocence, not that LE has to prove their guilt? I didn’t think that’s how the justice system works in the U.S., but now that we’re great again, maybe so.
Augustus is saying that the case isn’t tried on the KWHI message boards, and that all the facts aren’t going to be “printed” for us amateurs to weigh in on.
Law enforcement doesn’t have to prove anything, lawyers do.
Forfeitures are civil animals, so the state’s attorney has to prove that the property is contraband as defined by law, by the same standard as the guy suing his neighbor. So it’s the CIVIL justice system, not the criminal.
“Arrested… for money laundering.” Money laundering’s not a crime? The ‘facts’ were already printed in the article; defendant was arrested for money laundering and cash confiscated because a drug dog ‘detected’ the odor of illegal narcotics on the cash. Lawyers don’t prove anything, either — the facts do. It was a figure of speech. Keep dodging the ‘facts’ in service to your ideology and watch your civil liberties disappear.
I’d like some clarification too..occasionally I have large amounts of cash as a necessary part of conducting legitimate business. I wonder, should I worry about law enforcement taking it? This bothers me a little…..wish I knew more about this story
I agree with the above 2 comments, could someone please help me understand….
I just don’t get it. When did carrying cash become a crime?
Uh, he is from Mexico as in not a US citizen. Its a crime when your illegal carrying over $20,000. Remember why they come to the US….to make money or sell drugs and take it to Mexico. People don’t realize how much money the US is losing.
I’d like to remind everyone that simply being a foreigner in this country does not make you ‘illegal.’ We receive millions of utterly legal, perfectly welcome guests and tourists every year. Perhaps this gentleman was one of them. Perhaps he was to declare his currency when he crossed the border; I wouldn’t know as I’m not a customs officer. And I’ll wager no one else commenting here is, either.
Yeah, if we’d legalize drugs we could tax the sales and keep that money instead of seeing it go back to Mexico.
Over 90% of U.S. currency in circulation today has the odor of drugs. Its a sad state of affairs when legal tender-cash- makes you an instant criminal subject to search, seizure and forfeiture. And we hear over and over how free we are in this country.
“Over 90% of U.S. currency in circulation today has the odor of drugs.”
Not sure how true that stat is but if it is, for me, that’s more than enough to escalate and directly confront the pushers and users of drugs in and outside the country with some military force. LE are the nice guys and I want a solution that will protect freedoms that criminal organizations have taken or are trying to take. Post-haste. To think that we used to catch, conduct a trial, and hang a criminal in a weeks time, Mexican or not.
Why is a Mexican transporting that much cash in Texas? Is he a citizen? Was he just taking it to the bank to deposit if he’s an alien? Oh wait, he must of been taking it to donate to a local Church mission fund.
Well, here is something to go look up: “ Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” Benjamin Franklin. Let that sink in. Read the Bill of Rights much? Fourth Amendment mean anything? Please go familiarize yourself as well with the Posse Comitatus Act before you advocate for the US military to enforce laws on US soil. You want the military to bring out all their toys and play policeman, you go right ahead. There are a number of regimes in the world that play that game, and perhaps you can go check them out in person.
And again, this person was not charged with possession of drugs, transportation of drugs- only cash. Since when is this a crime, and if so, what’s the magic dollar amount? What amount gets you a rope or a needle, and what laws shall apply to Mexicans?
This case will not end in a hanging or even a conviction. The DA is going to make him the same deal that DA’s all over the country make defendants in these cash seizure cases- we are gonna let you go without any charges, but you are gonna say we can keep the money. Fight us, we’ll keep you and your money and cost you even more.
I like that quote Wally. I wish it was used more. However, the narcotics culture is eating us alive. It’s much more of a threat to us than Poncho Vill ever was and in 1916 we sent Gen “Black Jack” Pershing to take care of that problem. It was taken care of. We can and should do the same for many drug cartels, human traffickers, drug pushers, etc. Our country has hollowed out in more ways thank one and drugs are part of the cause. Accurate or not, your quote, “Over 90% of U.S. currency in circulation today has the odor of drugs.” does not mean that we should take currency off the table as a sign of drugs to look for. Rather, it’s sign that we need to relook how to combat the problem that is as strong as ever despite LE’s best efforts. 90% of currency laced with a hint of drugs cannot be tolerated. I think about this as I give a $ to my child for the soda machine. It is unacceptble and the US can and should stop this cold regardless.
A prefered famous quote we see alot (although is has many variations):
“All that is necessary for the trimph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
-Edmund Burke
We used to have the freedom to transport our own things around the country, including whatever amount of cash we wanted. This guy may have been laundering money or he may not. Your fear that some criminals may get away with a crime is what drives the diminishment of law-abiders’ freedoms. If you want to understand why your fellow law-abiding neighbors are upset that LE can take their cash if a dog ‘hits’ a drug-scent on it, you should probably look up the case of the Christian ministry band that had their cash confiscated while they were touring.