YORK – At least $1 million in cash was discovered inside a tractor-trailer Friday afternoon during a routine inspection along the turnpike.
One million dollars in cash was found in a tractor trailer on I-95.
Maine State Police said they found the stash of cash after detaining the driver and a passenger while they examined driver logs.
The driver, 35-year-old Jhon Rivera-Ramirez, was ultimately arrested for falsifying logs. He was later released on bail.
State police said Ramirez was traveling with a passenger, Jose Javier Perez, 46, who was not charged in the stop.
Police did not say where the men were coming from or where they were going. State Police Lt. Thomas Kelly said there was no other cargo inside the trailer.
"They were hauling cash," Kelly said. "That's all they were hauling."
Investigators from the State Police Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Unit made the initial stop. Police said the rig is registered in Texas.
When officers inspected the back of the rig, they found an odd sight – five gallon pails lined with pink bags and stuffed with bills of varying denominations.
Kelly said $1 million is only an estimate and probably a conservative one.
"It hasn't been counted yet," he said. "We're still early into the investigation."
It was, he said, the largest cash seizure in Maine's history.
By Friday night, Ramirez remained free on bail. Federal agents were expected to join the probe.
In recent years, the smuggling of bulk currency has become the preferred method for criminals to move illicit proceeds across our borders, according to Maine Public Safety Spokesman Stephen McCausland.
It is a crime to smuggle or attempt to smuggle over $10,000 in currency or monetary instruments into or out of the United States.
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Just reading this
Maybe its the SECRET SANTA's money..the one that is throwing out money to people!LOL
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Not that I'll get a response but how is from Texas (where I'm assuming the truck started) to York transporting funds into or out of the country?
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The state needs money. This will come in very handy. Thank you Mr. Smuggler. Next time you will consider travelers checks. Ya all come back now. P.S. we should triple the toll on the turnpike going south tomorrow. Wouldn't hurt to put a portable toll both on Route one tomorrow either. We could call it a going home tax.
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I hope there was a sale taxes on that money ??? Let see 5% or is it 7% ?
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What becomes of the money? I would bet Mr Ramirez and Mr Perez are long gone. I wouldn't want to be them, once the owner of the $$ discovers it's gone.
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Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond.We all know what they we up
We all know what they we up to but what is the crime? You can't carry large sums of cash????? Just curious to what charges they are being detained on?
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Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond.Knowing truckers I asked if any of them
had ever been arrested on log book violations and none had even heard about such a thing. Given that, once he made bail, what grounds did the cops have to keep the money? They may have suspected smuggling, but interstate transportation of money isn't a crime. This may have been a legitimate stop, but confiscating the money is illegal and the cops should be fired!
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Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond.That not news this is
Trooper facing accusation of sex on duty
At issue is whether engaging in the act was illegal or only a violation of department rules.
By David Hench dhench@mainetoday.com
Staff Writer
A longtime Maine State Police trooper is on administrative leave while the Attorney General's Office investigates an accusation that he compelled a woman to have sex with him while he was on duty, police sources say.
Read more: http://www.pressherald.com/news/trooper-facing-accusation-of-sex-on-duty...
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I edited your comment to include only a link to the story because it violates the Press Herald's copyright to copy and paste a whole story from their website.
Unless it is your own work, you should include a link, not copy and paste something in its entirety.
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And what does this have to do with the Maine State Police intercepting a million plus dollars of illicit funds?
Oh, sorry, another loser that has a hard on for cops, should have known.
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I understand why you don't think its relevant. It shows the all to common side of the cops, the side the big blue wall hides. A better question would be WHY didn't the SJ report this, instead of this bogus money find?
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Good stop State Police, but it's still perfectly legal to send up to $10,000 a day out of the country using Western Union or some such service. I know of a Spanish community where almost every day, the Western Union counter is the busiest place in town. A big loophole that needs to be closed.
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Why does it need to be closed? Why does it matter that people send money out of the country? I hope you're not afraid that we're "losing" that money, because we're not. When USDs are wired to a foreign country to foreign nationals they aren't going to have much use for USDs because all the stores and restaurants in their area take their local currency. So they'll exchange the currency at a bank. That bank can't really use it locally either. Those dollars come back to the United States in the form of investments. While this is the most direct path - USDs will always come home.
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Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond.Jeremy, the issues here are
Jeremy, the issues here are the same ones I had to be concerned with every day, with every transaction, and client I delt with as a stock broker. We are required to "know the client" and "know where the money came from." Why? Because we aren't permitted to launder money, i.e. drug money, extortion money, murder for hire money, to name just a few examples and of course funding terrorists in the US. This is also why money can not just be driven in or out of the country. Example: Juan Pablo has himself one fine growing operation in Central America. Lets say Mexico for the sake of convenience (his, ours, and the fact it is prevelant). He produces the finest cocaine and has established himself an excellent transportation system into the United States and distribution network in the United States as well. He has lots ad lots of customers handing over all their wonderful American greenbacks to his dealers who turn them over to his distributors. If we let money be trucked across the board all he would have to do is load it up on trucks, planes and trains and have all that drug money delivered right back to his wonder growing operation. But we don't wont that happening. We don't want his drugs and we don't want him getting paid for turning American's into junkies. Same reason he and his people can not walk into a bank or stockbrokerage with $10,000 or more in cash without a lot of explaining.
Achmed comes to the United States on a student visa to attend flight school at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University. He learns to fly big commercial passenger jets. He than does not leave the country when his visa expires. While attending Embry Riddle and while living amongst the general legal population of the United States Achmed is receiving boxes of cash which Mohamad carries accross the Mexican border. The boxes contain hundreds of thousands of dollars each as they not only provide support for Achmed but for his entire terrorist cell which is planning to fly commercial jetliners into large commercial buildings such as the World Trade Center. We really do not want Mohamad carrying boxes of cash into the United States do we. And we do not want large unexplained amounts of cash wired into the country through Western Union or a stockbroker or bank account to be used for terrorism either.
There are very good reasons why it is prohibited for large amounts of cash to be transported across United States borders and it has nothing to do with worrying about the paper entering or leaving. It has everything to do with how it was gained or what it will be used for.
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nice!!!
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