Woman with $46,950 in her bra sues after it's taken by DEA

[matcom]

<snip>

A Quincy woman who tried to board a plane at Logan International Airport in February with $46,950 stuffed inside her bra says she was heading to Texas for plastic surgery on her buttocks and breast.

But, in a lawsuit filed yesterday, Ileana Valdez said a male Drug Enforcement Administration agent told her she had a ''nice body" and didn't need any surgery -- then seized the cash, claiming it was drug money.

Valdez, 26, a single mother who was born in the Dominican Republic and is a US citizen, is petitioning to get the cash back in the suit filed yesterday in US District Court in Boston against the DEA. Her suit says she has no criminal record.

''How can you make a determination that people don't need cosmetic surgery?" said Boston lawyer Tony V. Blaize, who filed the suit on behalf of Valdez. ''I can't tell Michael Jackson he doesn't need more plastic surgery, even though I don't think he does."

Anthony Pettigrew, a spokesman for the DEA in Boston, said he couldn't comment on the lawsuit. But he said that federal asset forfeiture laws allow agents to seize suspected drug profits.

Although passengers have to file a currency report if carrying $10,000 or more in cash out of the country, they don't have to file such reports while traveling within the United States, Pettigrew said.

In her suit, Valdez says she earned the money from selling a Dorchester multi-service business and two parcels of property in Jamaica Plain. She said she withdrew all of her money from the bank to prevent creditors from getting the cash.

Blaize said Valdez was stopped while she was passing through a metal detector.

''I don't know why she was carrying it in her bra," said Blaize, adding that she probably felt the cash was safer on her body.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/06/23/woman_stopped_at_logan_with_46950_sues_dea?mode=PF

[benburch]

1. This is a serious problem.

Drug agents seize money like this all the time. And there is usually no recourse.

[SoDesuKa]

2. Doesn't Sound Kosher

I hope this isn't typical of DEA agents.

[sasquatch]

3. That's strange but she does have the right to have her money

and the DEA agent can go fuck himself.

[Spinzonner]

4. Well, I won't say she was a boob for doing it but ...

ever heard of a Cashiers Checks. Or Travelers Checks ?

[yvr girl]

5. $46,000!!!

I've put money in my bra on occasion, but like $40. I don't think you could put in $46,000 discreetly.

[ProfessorGAC]

10. That's A Good Question, yvr girl.

The largest denomination is a $100 bill. So, she stuffed 460 of them into her bra? How? That's a LOT of paper, isn't it?

I don't see how she could fit THAT many bills into a bra! I know. A few sizes too big and few cup sizes extra, but geez. Wouldn't that be really uncomfortable?
The Professor

[sui generis]

12. sista musta looked like an aircraft carrier coming through

that metal detector.

[underpants]

6. Very common practice amongst black women I know

Hell I know one that keeps her cell phone in the top of her bra.

:shrug:

[put out]

8. Hah! I have a white friend who does that, too.

I don't need to say what we call it; sex thread, you know.

But when it rings...I don't need to tell you that either.

Seriously, that money should be returned, pronto. Good luck to the woman ever getting it back. Drug war indeed.

[Pert_UK]

13. I keep mine down the front of my underpants......

Bought the biggest goddamn phone I could find and STILL can't pickup chicks, even in lycra shorts!....

Actually, ESPECIALLY in lycra shorts!

:evilgrin:

P.

[The Backlash Cometh]

7. Stashing money in a bra is a common practice in latin America.

Laborers don't have to worry about keeping an eye on their purses and belongings while they work.

[edbermac]

9. Was it all in one dollar bills?

[MissMillie]

11. She could avoid the surgery by

just keeping the money in her bra.