The Cornerstone Report: Volume 4, Issue 1

Operation Firewall: An International Partnership Success

The smuggling of bulk currency out of the United States has become a preferred method for drug dealers and other criminals to move illicit proceeds across our borders. In response, Congress criminalized the act of smuggling large amounts of cash into or out of the United States in the USA PATRIOT Act.

Specifically, Title 31 U.S.C. 5332—Bulk Cash Smuggling makes it a crime to smuggle or attempt to smuggle over $10,000 in currency or monetary instruments into or out of the United States, with the specific intent to evade the U.S. currency-reporting requirements codified in 31 U.S.C. 5316.

ICE has taken a leading role in combating bulk cash smuggling, teaming in August 2005 with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and our state, local and foreign law enforcement partners in Operation Firewall, a comprehensive law enforcement operation focused on the smuggling of large quantities of U.S. currency around the world.

Through Firewall, ICE and CBP are working side by side to combat cash smuggling at various U.S. ports-of-entry. In the interior United States, ICE works with state and local partners to identify and intercept bulk cash shipments being transported along domestic interstate highways en route to be smuggled out of the United States.

ICE’s enforcement of the bulk cash smuggling law extends beyond our nation’s borders. ICE and CBP are also conducting various Firewall training operations with our foreign law enforcement partners, including training exercises with Mexican law enforcement targeting the smuggling of U.S. currency through Mexico to Central and South America.

Throughout operations in Mexico, Panama, Colombia and Ecuador, ICE special agents and CBP officers provide hands-on training to our law enforcement partners on passenger analysis and other investigative techniques that have proven effective in the United States. Operations in Mexico and Panama also include training on the use of mobile x-ray units provided to the Mexican government by the U.S. Department of State.

Operation Firewall has focused on the full panoply of methods that are used to smuggle bulk cash, including commercial and private passenger vehicles, commercial airline shipments, commercial airline passengers and pedestrians transiting to Mexico along the southern border and Canada on the northern border.

As of February 2007, more than $75.7 million in U.S. currency and negotiable instruments have been seized as a result of Opera-tion Firewall. There have been a total of 660 seizures, resulting in 195 arrests (154 in the United States and 41 outside the United States). The ICE Mexico Money Laundering Vetted Unit has accounted for more than $36 million in seizures of currency and negotiable financial instruments.

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Beyond the Borders: ICE Partnerships Go Global

Operation Firewall: An International Partnership Success

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Cornerstone is U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) comprehensive investigative initiative for fighting financial crime, trade fraud and intellectual property crime.

The Cornerstone Report is a quarterly bulletin highlighting key issues related to ICE financial and trade investigations.

The Cornerstone Report covers a broad range of topics related to financial investigations and potential vulnerabilities in the financial and trade sectors.

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