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Customs discover US$32,510 in box from Chicago

InternationalCustoms discover US$32,510 in box from Chicago
Yesterday, Customs officers were making a routine check of a box that came in from the US city of Chicago. The box, like most other boxes that Belizeans receive from relatives in the States, contained the usual things. There were cereals and other foodstuff, toothpaste, clothing and so on.
 
But when Customs examiners opened a Crest toothpaste box, they discovered a quantity of United States currency. Their examination continued and they found more US dollars stuffed inside a cereal box and inside a plastic bag.
 
When they counted the monies, which were all in small denominations, the biggest being fifty-dollar bills, it amounted to $32,510.00.
 
Customs officials immediately called the Financial Intelligence Unit and the police to inform them of the find.
 
The box came into the country through a freight service named Joseph Freight Service, which operates in Chicago, Dallas and Houston.
 
Although the box was addressed to Sidney Ellis at 8124 Curl Thompson Street in the Port Loyola area of Belize City, the sender was careful not to put his or her name on the box.
 
Perhaps the only person who would be knowledgeable about the identity of the sender would be the freight service representative in Chicago, who had to pick up the box from the sender’s address and collect fees for the service of shipping it to Belize.
 
Although the shipping of drugs and the illegal duplicates of various products often find their way into Belize, Customs officials have confirmed to Amandala that this is the first time that they have discovered money being sent via the regular freight service.
 
A Customs official told us that it is most likely that Ellis will be charged with importing more than the prescribed amount of US dollars into the country without a permit from the Central Bank of Belize.
 
In the meantime, the money, Amandala understands, is safely locked away in a safe at the Customs Department. As for the other contents of the box, those will also be kept by Customs and used as exhibits in court. 
 
But when we spoke to Geraldine Davis, who heads the Financial Intelligence Unit, we were told that: “I am not in a position to say what the FIU will do. What it does is supposed to be confidential.”
 
Davis, however, went on to say that the FIU will assist the Customs Department, because it is a Customs issue.
 
Senior Customs officials refused to go into details about this latest discovery. Amandala has learned, however, through a well-placed source, that the money was destined for one of the city’s organizations that is of keen interest to law enforcement officials.
  

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