FUNNY MONEY: Officers at JFK stopped a Columbian woman they say was carrying this $300, 000 in fake cash. (
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The money was funny, but the criminal charges are no laughing matter.
A Colombian woman was busted at JFK with nearly $300,000 of counterfeit US currency in her luggage, federal officials said yesterday.
Karol Andrea Chilito Solarte, 29, who flew here from Medellin, was arrested on Dec. 15 after Customs and Border Protection officers spotted an unusual thickness at the bottom of her suitcase, a spokesman for the agency said.
The oddly shaped suitcase sparked the suspicions of Customs officers — and a closer examination uncovered 46 packages of phony $100 bills totaling almost $300,000, the spokesman said.
“CBP officers protect the homeland in many ways.” said Robert E. Perez, Director of CBP’s New York Field Operations.
“Our officers are always on the lookout for items that can harm our communities; in this case, it was counterfeit currency.”
Solarte was handed over to the Secret Service, which will prosecute her in conjunction with the US Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn.
Meanwhile, Customs agents also nabbed two foreign nationals at Newark Airport on unrelated narcotics-smuggling charges in separate incidents last week.
On Wednesday, Daniela Mastromarino, 39, an Italian national, arrived at Newark from Costa Rica with about 1.2 pounds of cocaine in her luggage, CBP claims.
The following day, Customs officers detained Heber Razuri Leon, 46, at Newark Airport after he stepped off a flight from his native Peru with four pairs of sandals and four deflated soccer balls.
The items stood out because they were “unusually heavy.”
A check revealed that the two items were stuffed with 4.9 pounds of cocaine, Customs officials said.
The total value of the cocaine seized in the two incidents was worth more than $310,000, the officials said.
Perez, the CBP director, lauded Customs officers at Newark Airport as “some of the best in the country at what they do.”
“These seizures demonstrate our officer’s skills and observational techniques,” he said.
Mastromarino and Razuri Leon were turned over to agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations directorate.
Each suspect faces federal narcotics-smuggling charges and will be prosecuted by the US Attorney’s Office in Newark, officials said.