ATLANTA — U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers say that since the beginning of the year, they have seized more than $372,000 in cash.
Travelers are allowed to carry as much cash as they want, but must report anything over $10,000 to the U.S. Treasury, according to CBP.
Officers say that 24 people at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport didn’t report the amount of cash they had, so it was seized.
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The largest seizure was $44,432 from a U.S. citizen departing March 22 for San Salvador, El Salvador.
An Indian citizen heading for the United Arab Emirates had $32,700 on Jan. 31.
A family heading to Doha, Qatar on Feb. 4 had $30,417. CBP officers say they gave the family several opportunities to change their initial declaration of $6,000, but they did not.
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Channel 2 Consumer Investigator Justin Gray previously looked into the practice of federal agents confiscating money at the world’s busiest airport.
Data obtained through an open records request by the Institute for Justice found that CBP seized more than $108 million in cash from travelers at the Atlanta airport between 2000 and 2016.
One man told Gray that he was approached by two federal agents who seized $39,000 from him, and he never heard from them again. He eventually filed a lawsuit and got his money back.
A 2017 Department of Justice Inspector General audit looked at a sample of 100 DEA seizures and found only 44 of those advanced or were even related to a criminal investigation.
The same year, a Treasury Inspector General found 91% of the money seized in cases it looked at was from a legal source.
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