|
TWO Filipinos were arrested in Guam before boarding a flight to the
Philippines after they were accused of smuggling cash amounting to
$900,000 or P36.3 million.
Ernesto Verdera and Mark Anthony Bartolome were
about to board a 5 a.m. Philippine Airlines flight to Manila when
they were accosted for possessing bulks of cash in dollars, a report
prepared by Avery Cepeda of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement
of Guam showed.
The Filipinos were immediately charged with cash
smuggling, also known as dollar salting, before Judge Francis
Tydingco of the District Court of Guam.
The bundles of money were found in five of the
seven checked-in luggage of Verdera when it passed through the
airport scanning machine. The bills were concealed in black cartons
and wrapped in carbon papers.
The Filipinos did not declare they were carrying
any cash in their luggage. They admitted during interrogation that
it was not the first time they attempted to carry bulks of cash out
of Guam.
US federal law requires departing passengers to
declare possession of cash worth more than $10,000 to the Customs
and Border Protection. Guam is a US territory in the Pacific.
-- Francis Earl A. Cueto
|
