Two groups of travelers leaving Dulles International Airport over Memorial Day weekend had nearly $100,000 in cash seized after authorities said they went to unusual lengths to hide money — even though carrying large amounts of currency out of the United States is legal.
On Saturday, May 23, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers and Vito, a nearly 2-year-old German Shepherd trained to sniff out currency, stopped a U.S. citizen and his family before they boarded a flight from Dulles to Brussels, Belgium, CBP wrote in a statement Monday.
Officers said the man initially said he and his wife were each carrying $7,000. After CBP officers explained the reporting requirement, the family revised the total to $20,000, then listed $22,500 when completing the official currency reporting form, the agency said.
But a later inspection found additional cash concealed inside a small purse, CBP said. Officers also reported frisking the man and finding another $1,450 hidden in the pockets of a second pair of pants he was wearing. Their final count: $46,520.
The next day, officers came across another case involving a woman and her mother, who’s from Cameroon — also attempting to board a flight to Brussels, CBP said.
After officers explained the currency reporting rules, the pair at first said they had $15,000, the agency said. The daughter, a U.S. citizen, then wrote $22,361 on the required reporting form, CBP said. Then, during a baggage inspection, CBP officers said they discovered even more money stitched inside women’s undergarments.
Their final count in that case totaled $52,923.
CBP seized the cash in both cases, totaling $99,443. The travelers were released and were not criminally charged.
“These are two seizures in which travelers went to extreme measures to unnecessarily conceal currency from Customs and Border Protection officers during a departure inspection,” said Christine Waugh, CBP area port director for D.C., in a news release.
Waugh said the currency reporting requirement is not designed to stop travelers from carrying their own money abroad.
“Currency reporting laws don’t restrict how much currency people can take overseas, nor is the currency taxed,” she said. “The law is focused on identifying bulk currency smuggling attempts that may be associated with illegal activity.”
CBP emphasized that the travelers were not accused of breaking the law by carrying large sums of money. Federal rules allow travelers to move any amount of cash internationally, but anyone carrying more than $10,000 must accurately report it to the U.S. Treasury.
According to CBP, both groups would have been allowed to keep their money and continue their trips if they had accurately reported the full amounts they were carrying. Instead, they both faced delays or missed flights.
The agency said Dulles officers have repeatedly encountered similar cases this year. In April, officers seized more than $163,000 in unreported currency from four travelers, and in January seized more than $119,000 from four others, CBP said.
Nationwide, CBP officers and agents seized more than $182,000 per day in unreported or illicit currency from October 2024 through September 2025, according to filings from the U.S. Border Patrol and CBP’s Office of Field Operations.
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