BUFFALO, N.Y. — An Ontario man is facing charges of trying to cross the border with a lot more money than he claimed to have.
Mhamood Fadl Salih Khairi, 28, of St. Catherines, tried to enter Canada at the Lewiston Queenston Bridge on July 15. He was driving a tractor trailer and said he was returning to Mississauga, Ontario from Boston with a load of copper wire. When asked by a Customs and Border Patrol officer how much money he was traveling with, Khairi replied with $300. In customs paperwork, he also claimed he was not carrying over $10,000.
A CPB K-9 checking the truck for illegal drugs alerted officers to the presence of possible narcotics near the rear of the truck's cab. The vehicle was then sent over for a secondary inspection. It was at that time that officers located a large white and green gift bag. Inside were 10 vacuum sealed bundles of cash, totaling $207,500 in United States currency.
Khairi is facing a charge of bulk cash smuggling. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
