The Dallas Police Department released more details about the $100,000 in cash that it seized from a 25-year-old woman at Love Field in December 2021.
The Dallas Express previously reported that Dallas Love Field K-9 Officer Ballentine alerted fellow officers to the stash of cash at the airport on December 2. Officers seized $106,829 that had been stuffed into two bubble envelopes along with blankets in a suitcase at the airport.
According to CBS 11 News, Dallas police released a new report on February 16 that shed more light on the incident.
According to the report, the Dallas Police Narcotics Interdiction Squad, who are also Task Force Officers with the FBI, were working the transfer bags area at the airport when the K-9 alerted them to the package.
Dallas police revealed that officers decided to search the luggage without waiting for a warrant to avoid delay and disruption to passengers and airlines. Adding to the urgency in the situation was the bag was about to be loaded onto an airplane and was destined for a “known source city” (Chicago) for narcotics exportation, police said.
Dallas police found two white shipping bags wrapped in blankets, and a detective who opened the bag said it smelled of marijuana.
According to a police report, officers approached the woman inside the airport’s terminal, where she agreed to talk to detectives. When officers asked her if she was carrying cocaine, methamphetamine, or heroin, she answered “no.” The woman denied having anything illegal in the bag but admitted she was carrying nearly $20,000 in the luggage along with some clothes.
Police suspected the cash might have been gotten from the sales and trafficking of illegal narcotics when the woman could not accurately describe the luggage and what was inside.
Police said the woman was unfazed and signed a property receipt when she was told they would seize the money.
The report states that no drugs were found on the woman or in the suitcase that the seizure was based on the K-9’s alert, detectives’ suspicions about the woman’s responses, and the bag’s final destination.
The woman was released without any charge, and Dallas police did not say if the department was conducting any further investigation into the incident. The money was taken to FBI Dallas, CBS reports.