Tip: Don't Fly With $46,950 in Your Bra
In February, Ileana Valdez tried to fly from Boston's Logan International Airport to Texas for plastic surgery on her buttocks and breasts. She never made it through security. The 26-year-old was stopped when $46,950 was found stuffed in her bra. Although she hasn't said why the cash was in her bra, the Drug Enforcement Administration called it drug money and seized it.
The Associated Press reports that Valdez is now suing the DEA to get her money back. The single mom claims she got the cash by selling her Dorchester, Mass., business and two parcels of property in Boston's Jamaica Plain section. She has no criminal record. But why did Valdez have the cash stuffed inside her bra? Even her attorney says he doesn't know. "I don't know why she was carrying it (the cash) in her bra," AP quotes Boston lawyer Tony V. Blaize as saying. He filed the lawsuit Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Boston on behalf of Valdez. Anthony Pettigrew, a spokesman for the DEA in Boston, told AP that he could not comment on the lawsuit, but did say that federal asset forfeiture laws allow agents to seize suspected drug profits.
