Border agents seize cash, drugs in separate incidents

Published 9:00 pm Thursday, July 26, 2001

Herald staff

BLAINE — Federal agents are investigating two separate incidents at the U.S.-Canadian border Wednesday — one in which a man was arrested with $450,000 in undeclared cash, and the other in which $180,000 worth of marijuana and what is believed to be 20,000 ecstasy pills were found.

The pills have an estimated street value of $400,000 to $600,000.

Federal inspectors stopped a 35-year-old Glendale, Calif., man who had the large amount of cash, said Roy Hoffman, U.S. Customs Service law enforcement supervisor in Blaine.

The man was arrested and booked into the Whatcom County Jail. He made an initial appearance Thursday in U.S. District Court in Seattle. He pleaded innocent after he was charged by complaint with one count of failing to declare currency, Assistant U.S. Attorney Lawrence Lincoln said.

Federal law requires people to declare if they are carrying $10,000 or more upon entering the country. Also, border patrol agents east of Lynden Wednesday night found two large hockey bags. No one was with the bags.

The bags contained about 60 pounds of Canadian marijuana, called "B.C. bud," worth about $180,000 on the street, Hoffman said. The bags also contained pills believed to be Ecstasy, a drug blamed for increasing emergency room calls due to overdoses across the country.

The cache, weighing about 15 pounds, is the largest seizure of Ecstasy Hoffman has seen in recent years, he said. The pills are sold at rave parties for $20 to $30 apiece.