Another Brownsville man accused of trying to smuggle money into Mexico

For the second time in a little over a week, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at a Brownsville Port of Entry have arrested another Brownsville man accused of trying to cross more than $10,000 from the United States into Mexico.

Jose Javier Cardenas, born in 1981, was arrested Wednesday as he tried to cross more than $10,000 from the U.S. into Mexico via the B&M International Bridge in Brownsville, a federal criminal complaint states.

He is charged with one count of conspiracy/laundering of monetary instruments.

According to the federal criminal complaint, during an inspection of vehicles heading into Mexico, a CBP canine alerted officers to the vehicle.

As the officers inspected Cardenas’ 2016 GMC Yukon, they found about 40 bundles of U.S. currency “concealed in several natural voids located within the vehicle.”

During a post-Miranda interview with Homeland Security Investigation agents, Cardenas admitted to smuggling the money from the U.S. into Mexico for financial gain, the federal criminal complaint reads.

Cardenas appeared Thursday before U.S. Magistrate Ignacio Torteya III, who ordered he be held without bond, pending his next court appearance.

On Jan. 10, Jose Carmen Presas-Cano Jr. was arrested by CBP officers after he allegedly tried to cross close to $1 million into Mexico also via the B&M International Bridge.

The federal criminal complaint states that as Presas-Cano tried to cross into Mexico, he told CBP officers that he did not have “firearms, ammunition, and monetary instruments in excess of $10,000” on him.

His vehicle was selected for an outbound examination by officers, and during the search, they found several vacuum sealed bundles of U.S. currency totaling $931,739 that were “hidden in the spare tire well of the trunk as well as behind the inner lining of the truck walls,” the federal criminal complaint read.

Presas-Cano made his second court appearance on Jan. 17 before Torteya, who ordered he continued to be held without bond pending his trial.

In the court appearance, Torteya found that “short of detention there is no condition or combination of conditions to assure the defendant’s appearance in court,” federal court documents reflect.

According to federal law, anyone crossing $10,000 or more at an international crossing must report the money to CPB.