Two Chinese nationals were caught in Texas hauling what appears to be cartel gold. Alejandro Mayorkas was impeached but not convicted for his failure to secure the border. The senators who voted to let him off the hook aren’t talking about this one. Both bullion smugglers illegally jumped the border and were released by DHS on “parole.” It looks like they were paying off their coyote fees by acting as mules. They’re both charged with money laundering the cartel’s profits. Joe and Kamala’s handlers are relieved they aren’t Iranian terrorists.
$250,000 in gold bars
The Wills Point Police Department has such a good K9 unit that it can sniff out gold. The average Fido on the force doesn’t do that, though they can be trained for it. This report came in from local news sites and there are more than a few holes in the story.
Reading between the lines makes it appear that these two men were under constant surveillance before authorities used a pretext to make a decisive move.
The affidavit filed in court by Sargent Charlie Hughes states he was working traffic enforcement along westbound I-20, near the 533 mile marker. A White Chevy Malibu sporting a Michigan registration caught his attention with “a traffic violation.”
Wills Point Texas, 2 illegal Chinese immigrants, Weijian Chen,25 & Wenqiang Lin arrested in Wills Point Texas, $250k in gold bars seized after traffic stop on I-20. Entered U.S. 2023 Tecate Calif. given notice to appear, never showed. Now In Van Zandt County Texas jail pic.twitter.com/VY5CvMHXit
— Billy Shivers (@shiv89153) August 3, 2024
Officially, the sargent didn’t know anything about any gold or Chinese nationals ahead of time. It was a simple traffic stop for speeding, changing lanes without a signal, following too closely or any of a number of ambiguous minor infractions cops can use at will.
When he pulled the vehicle over, 25-year-old Weijian Chen didn’t speak much English. Since officer Hughes isn’t fluent in Mandarin, the driver was asked “to go to his patrol vehicle and speak to him using a translator app.”
Chen didn’t mention the gold but Hughes “observed multiple factors” that made him “believe there was criminal activity afoot.” Chen admitted flying from Los Angeles, California, to Atlanta, Georgia. He and his passenger Wenqiang Lin were there to “play.” At least, that’s how it was translated. He could have used the Chinese word for vacation, which the British call “holiday.”
Only a day
Their vacation in Atlanta only lasted a single day before they were off to Jacksonville, Florida in the rental car. That’s probably where they picked up the gold. The Chinese tourists were there “for about two hours before they went on I-10 westbound traveling north on I-49 to I-20.”
Police know a lot about their movements before they were pulled over. The rental was leased in the passenger’s name. Wenqiang Lin gave consent for the dog to give the car a sniff. It soon “began working the front passenger door seam and gave an alert.” Some say cops can make them do that on cue.
While the K9 alerted on the passenger door, the gold was behind the driver’s seat. Along with “a boarding pass from Spirit Airlines that showed Chen had boarded the plane in Los Angeles on July 30 at 5:19 p.m. and arrived in Atlanta on July 31 at 12:53 a.m. The tickets reportedly showed he had no bags with him when he boarded the flight.”
“Chinese nationals arrested in East Texas, $250k in gold bars seized after traffic stop.” They came illegally from California and supposedly do not have any information of legal purchase of gold they being charge of money laundering https://t.co/UbnlxlaG9X
— Orca 𝕏 (@KILLERWHALE210) August 4, 2024
The rental agreement confirmed “that the vehicle was rented in College Park, Georgia at 1:28 a.m. on July 31 and was to be returned by Aug. 3 by 11:30 a.m. in Los Angeles.”
The bag contained a whole bunch of various size gold bars totaling up to roughly a quarter million dollars. They ranged in size from one gram to ten ounces each and were all rated at 99.99 percent pure. The men both denied knowing who the bullion belonged to but they were charged with money laundering. It seems they had been on radar while they were in Georgia. Corporal Thompson with the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office Criminal Interdiction Unit had also “stopped the duo on July 31 at 2:38 p.m. for a traffic violation.”
His K9 also “alerted on the vehicle, leading to a search where he then became suspicious of the duo’s activities.” He came up empty handed but followed them “to Marietta, Georgia to an area known for cartel activity.” That was after they went back to the rental agency for a different car. The Wills Point cops claim they didn’t have a clue about that, before they pulled the pair over. Both departments plan to split the gold, after lawful seizure proceedings.
