Trucker pleads guilty in currency case

The Canadian trucker was pulled over because of a missing sticker.

JOHNSTOWN, Pa. (AP) — A Canadian trucker concealed more than $250,000 in cash when his rig was stopped on the Pennsylvania Turnpike last fall.

Ebrahim Mansouri, 53, of Toronto, was pulled over Sept. 26, 2006, because a state trooper said he did not have a U.S. Department of Transportation sticker on his truck.

Police said they found $257,400 in heat-shrunk plastic packaging that had been hidden in the truck’s cab. The money later tested positive for heroin and cocaine residue. Police searched the truck after they said the trucker gave vague answers about where he had been that didn’t match up with his log books.

Mansouri pleaded guilty Monday in U.S. District Court to transporting currency to avoid a reporting requirement. Federal law requires people to declare more than $10,000 in cash when they cross the U.S. border. He will be sentenced Jan. 14 by U.S. District Judge Kim R. Gibson.

Police said Mansouri told them the money consisted of gambling winnings and savings from his pay. Mansouri later told authorities he didn’t declare the cash when he crossed the border because he was afraid the government would find out he owed $6,000 on a Canadian student loan and had credit card bills.

Defense attorney Robert Mielnicki said his client never maintained a bank account and simply kept his savings and gambling winnings with him.

“I have no reason not to believe that this was not my client’s lawful lifetime earnings,” Mielnicki said.

Guilty plea

Mansouri pleaded guilty with the condition that he can appeal previous rulings by a federal judge upholding the legality of the police stop and search. If Mansouri wins those appeals, he might get much of his money back, Mielnicki said. If not, he’ll likely forfeit it all under federal law.

Mansouri faces a sentence of two to three years in prison under federal guidelines. He’s been in custody since the traffic stop and will have served more than 15 months by the time he is sentenced. Mielnicki said he’ll argue for a sentence of time served instead of the sentence spelled out in the guidelines.

“The U.S. government takes very seriously these registering offenses,” Mielnicki said. “If you’re coming in or you’re leaving (the country) and you have more than $10,000, if you’re a big-time spender or planning to gamble or whatever, you had better declare that money.”