Two Houston men are behind bars in the Rio Grande Valley after allegedly trying to smuggling more than $22,000 dollars in cash into Mexico.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers arrested Juan Abelardo Esquivel and Hugo Avila on bulk cash smuggling charges over the weekend.
The two men were trying to walk into Matamoros on the pedestrian lanes of Brownsville’s Gateway International Bridge around 4:34 a.m. Saturday.
Customs officers stopped the two men for a southbound inspection where they learned Esquivel had $13,296 dollars in cash while Avila $8,816 dollars on him.
Esquivel and Avila both admitted that they were supposed to smuggle the cash from Houston to Mexico.
Both men appeared before U.S. Magistrate Court Judge Felix Recio in Brownsville on Monday morning.
Judge Recio denied bond for both of them until a Friday morning hearing.
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