$1 million a day: TSA flags suspicious cash outflow at Minneapolis–St. Paul Airport

wing2000 · Feb 2, 2026

ThatRobGuy said:
Federal officials say TSA officers flagged approximately $340 million (approximately €293 million) in outbound cash in 2024, followed by nearly $350 million (approximately €302 million) more in 2025, all departing from MSP on international flights. The money was frequently carried by a limited number of repeat couriers, with individual trips sometimes involving seven-figure sums. Despite the alarming totals, many travelers had completed required customs declarations, limiting immediate enforcement options.

Seven-figure sums being transported by "repeat couriers" should throw up some red flags.

I know the gut reaction of some people will be "Trump and some of his bigoted followers are saying bad things about Somalis, so we need to give absolutely every benefit of the doubt and inject every bit of plausible deniability we can"... but the reality is, that shouldn't trump common sense.

Well yea, the Op's (and other's) obervations are obvioulsy politically motivated. After all, Trump has been attacking Somalis and Ilhan Omar - since 2019.

That being said, if there is a pattern of certain individuals routinely taking large amounts of case out of the U.S., federal authorities should investigate it.

Laodicean60 · Feb 4, 2026

wing2000 said:
Well yea, the Op's (and other's) obervations are obvioulsy politically motivated.

Lol, aren't you (and others) politically motivated in your post? I agree there's nothing wrong with anyone declaring money according to the LAW and the pattern you mention is definitely suspicious. 700M divided by 10K= 70,000 people in two years.

Postvieww · Feb 4, 2026

wing2000 said:
Well yea, the Op's (and other's) obervations are obvioulsy politically motivated. After all, Trump has been attacking Somalis and Ilhan Omar - since 2019.

In this particular case it is Somalis who are the primary perpetrators. Omar should have to explain how she went from minimal wealth to several million in such a short time. Not mention possible immigration fraud that if found guilty should send her back. How is rooting out fraud a politically motivated action? It appears to me to be the opposite as your claim, ignoring , supporting or covering up for the fraud is actually politically motivated.

wing2000 · Feb 4, 2026

I never wrote that "rooting out fraud" is politically motivated.

I suggest you both review the pont I was responding too.

hedrick · Feb 4, 2026

I can see why it raises suspicions. I'd think law enforcement might want to see if something is going on. It's obvious why people think it's an attempt to get proceeds of large-scale fraud out of the country. However until they find something, headlines seem premature. At the moment it's just innuendo, and part of a right-wing attack on various immigrant populations.

Incidentally, the source for much of it seems to be Ohio: https://www.allsides.com/news/2026-...ion-moved-ohio-airport-minnesota-way-overseas

hedrick · Feb 4, 2026

wing2000 said:
I never wrote that "rooting out fraud" is politically motivated.

I suggest you both review the pont I was responding too.

It's being used as part of an attack on immigrants. But the fraud investigations didn't start for that reason, and they seem to have found large-scale fraud.

essentialsaltes · Feb 4, 2026

Laodicean60 said:
700M divided by 10K= 70,000 people in two years.

The article says the money was legally declared. You only have to declare if it's MORE than $10,000. It could be one guy with $700 million in his suitcase.

Laodicean60 · Feb 4, 2026

essentialsaltes said:
The article says the money was legally declared. You only have to declare if it's MORE than $10,000. It could be one guy with $700 million in his suitcase.

You are correct, but the scale and frequency are suspicious even if the couriers were packing a million dollars each. I assume that the amount would be carried on his carry-on bags because the other is more susceptible to theft. Criminal organizations use couior method to avoid financial record, reporting, and source of fund explanations. I'll let the investigation pan out.

AI says that a million will fit in in carry on luggage.

ThatRobGuy · Feb 4, 2026

hedrick said:
I can see why it raises suspicions. I'd think law enforcement might want to see if something is going on. It's obvious why people think it's an attempt to get proceeds of large-scale fraud out of the country. However until they find something, headlines seem premature. At the moment it's just innuendo, and part of a right-wing attack on various immigrant populations.

Incidentally, the source for much of it seems to be Ohio: https://www.allsides.com/news/2026-...ion-moved-ohio-airport-minnesota-way-overseas

It seems like Columbus appears to be one of the origin airports.

Although, there would have to be other cities involved as well.

If 130 million (from November 2023 until now -- roughly 2 years worth... so if we assume about 70 million per year) came from Columbus...

That same article notes that TSA detected nearly $700 million in cash in luggage leaving the Minneapolis airport in 2024.

So if ~70 million in 2024 came from Columbus, that still leaves about $640 million to track the source of.

The officials said they appear to have uncovered a massive cash movement operation that gathered money from multiple Somali immigrant communities in the West, Midwest and South that eventually brought luggage filled with currency to Minneapolis for flights overseas.

Given that the cash all flows through Minneapolis as the "central final hub" before it leaves the country, that to me, seems to indicate one of two things... Either the Minneapolis airport has been more lax in enforcement and screening that major airports, or the stateside ringleader(s) of the operation are based in Minneapolis. (or maybe a little bit of both)

Similar to how back in the 80's during the peak of the Medellin Cartel operations... obviously they had affiliates and aspects of their operation all throughout the US (it wasn't hard to find coke in the 80's, so obviously they had peeps in most states), but everyone knew the "main hub" or epicenter was Miami -- that's where the US-side "shot-callers" operated, and any of the money flowing out tended to go out through Miami.

And the methods (at least in the early days of the cartel) weren't all that different (later on, they had to start getting more sophisticated)

Affiliates from around the country would travel to Miami with the cash, it'd be divided among a few dozen couriers/passengers - so if one or two get busted it's the cost of doing business but most get through. Flights would stop off in neutral country that has a lax policy on currency conversion (they went with Panama or Mexico usually), and then eventually make it's way back to Columbia. -- in this instance, they seem to be traveling through Dubai to get to their final destination -- which just so happens to be a fairly friendly country for exchanging large amounts of currency, as well as doing larger size hawala transactions

DaisyDay · Feb 4, 2026

Can this be investigated without smearing the Somalis and Minnesotans?

Aryeh Jay · Feb 4, 2026

DaisyDay said:
Can this be investigated without smearing the Somalis and Minnesotans?

How will we be able to cancel the midterm election if we don't?

DaisyDay · Feb 4, 2026

Aryeh Jay said:
How will we be able to cancel the midterm election if we don't?

That's a fair point - the illegal ICE invasion might not do the trick. President Charming might not be able to federalize control of the elections.

ThatRobGuy · Feb 4, 2026

DaisyDay said:
Can this be investigated without smearing the Somalis and Minnesotans?

What are you constituting as "smearing"?

If others pointing out that specific organized crime rings/affiliates have a high associative overlap with certain groups/locales is considered "smearing", then unfortunately no, there's not going to be a great way to discuss the problem that doesn't perhaps cast a negative light.

It would've been like saying back in the "troubles" in Northern Ireland--
"Look, we need to talk about the IRA's activities, and investigate...sure, but can we do it in a way that we make sure it doesn't make Irish Catholics in that area or the city Belfast as a whole look bad?"

And that challenge becomes even more difficult when the community in question is somewhat insular and city leadership seems to be keen on taking their side.

Or perhaps a better domestic example would be the insular communities in New York City.

There have certainly been a lot of issues (ranging from human rights violations, to financial, etc...) in those.

Is there a way to discuss that issue openly and honestly without someone getting the impression that Hasidic Jews are being smeared? (given that the behaviors in question are a direct offshoot of the prevailing religious ideology of said insular community)

Hans Blaster · Feb 4, 2026

DaisyDay said:
Can this be investigated without smearing the Somalis and Minnesotans?

I haven't seen any articles that weren't written by anyone other than John Solomon, who is not credible.

hedrick · Feb 5, 2026

I found this article interesting: What you need to know about Somali money transfers and 'mysterious bags full of cash' flying out of MSP airport - MinnPost

It explains a system that is used by Somalis in the US to get money to relatives back home.
The article quotes an Oxfam study in 2013, estimating $1.3 billion per year in this kind of support, if which $203 million per year would come from the US. That's not out of line with the amounts mentioned here, particularly since that was 12 years ago. Minnesota is estimated to have around half the Somalis in the US, and the involvement of Columbus suggests that MSP may be used as a central point for the country

That's not to say that there isn't also proceeds from fraud and other bad things. By the nature of the system it's going to require quite an investigation to know.

I'd be surprised if there aren't changes in laws to require better tracking.

hedrick · Feb 5, 2026

Given that there's this existing money transfer system, it seems the simplest and thus most likely explanation is that the cash was from that system, not anyone specifically connected to the fraudsters. But they certainly could use the system to get money out of the country.

ThatRobGuy · Feb 5, 2026

Hans Blaster said:
I haven't seen any articles that weren't written by anyone other than John Solomon, who is not credible.

Are we conflating Bias with credibility?

Per Ad Fontes:

https://app.adfontesmedia.com/chart/interactive?utm_source=adfontesmedia&utm_medium=website

(for the bias score, 0 is neutral, +36 is extreme right bias, -36 is extreme left bias)

JustTheNews reliability score is 32.56 and bias score of +10.9

Point of reference:
Rachel Maddow is 30.86, with a bias score of -18.7
60 Minutes is 34.96, with a bias score of -9.7
Rolling stone is 26.24, with a bias score of -13.76
Huffington Post is 36.39, with a bias score of -10.69
Vanity Fair is 33.34, with a bias score of -13.9

If a news story that was unflattering to conservatives were covered by any of the aforementioned outlets, would you be having a problem with the source?

Hans Blaster · Feb 5, 2026

ThatRobGuy said:
Are we conflating Bias with credibility?

You didn't read what I wrote. The subject of my sentence was John Solomon, not some news outlet where the article is published. He personally has a history of inventing and transmitting false narrative as hit pieces. Given the nature of this "article", I can not give him the benefit of the doubt. Real reporting is needed.

ThatRobGuy said:
Per Ad Fontes:

https://app.adfontesmedia.com/chart/interactive?utm_source=adfontesmedia&utm_medium=website

(for the bias score, 0 is neutral, +36 is extreme right bias, -36 is extreme left bias)

JustTheNews reliability score is 32.56 and bias score of +10.9

Point of reference:
Rachel Maddow is 30.86, with a bias score of -18.7
60 Minutes is 34.96, with a bias score of -9.7
Rolling stone is 26.24, with a bias score of -13.76
Huffington Post is 36.39, with a bias score of -10.69
Vanity Fair is 33.34, with a bias score of -13.9

If a news story that was unflattering to conservatives were covered by any of the aforementioned outlets, would you be having a problem with the source?

ThatRobGuy · Feb 5, 2026

Hans Blaster said:
You didn't read what I wrote. The subject of my sentence was John Solomon, not some news outlet where the article is published. He personally has a history of inventing and transmitting false narrative as hit pieces. Given the nature of this "article", I can not give him the benefit of the doubt. Real reporting is needed.

He's the owner of the outlet that published the article.

Hans Blaster · Feb 5, 2026

ThatRobGuy said:
He's the owner of the outlet that published the article.

Don't care. Just because built a website and publishes some "normal" articles doesn't impact his personal history of misinformation. John Solomon is not to be trusted.

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$1 million a day: TSA flags suspicious cash outflow at Minneapolis–St. Paul Airport

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