Woman stopped at Logan with $46,950 sues DEA

[The Straight Story]

Woman stopped at Logan with $46,950 sues DEA

By Shelley Murphy, Globe Staff | June 23, 2005

A Quincy woman who tried to board a plane at Logan International Airport in February with $46,950 stuffed inside her bra says she was heading to Texas for plastic surgery on her buttocks and breast.

But, in a lawsuit filed yesterday, Ileana Valdez said a male Drug Enforcement Administration agent told her she had a ''nice body" and didn't need any surgery -- then seized the cash, claiming it was drug money.

Valdez, 26, a single mother who was born in the Dominican Republic and is a US citizen, is petitioning to get the cash back in the suit filed yesterday in US District Court in Boston against the DEA. Her suit says she has no criminal record.

''How can you make a determination that people don't need cosmetic surgery?" said Boston lawyer Tony V. Blaize, who filed the suit on behalf of Valdez. ''I can't tell Michael Jackson he doesn't need more plastic surgery, even though I don't think he does."

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/06/23/woman_stopped_at_logan_with_46950_sues_dea/

[Dora]

1. wow.

That's one way to get rich quick.

[benburch]

2. Matcom scooped you!

About an hour ago

[The Straight Story]

4. DOH I must be slacking! (nt)

[Dez]

3. The DEA are nothing more than

common thieves! It's disgusting all they get away with!

[doodadem]

5. Wait a minute

The agent seized the cash, but didn't arrest her???

[livinginphotographs]

6. They do that shit all the time.

I remember one story where they seized $30,000 from a farmer who was off to buy a new tractor. I don't know if he ever got the money back.