I was watching Lou Dobb's "Moneyline" on CNN this evening.

They had a report of two middle eastern fellows being caught
trying to smuggle $100,000.00 in a case of honey.

The transcript of the (entire) show is available here:

http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0110/26/mlld.00.html

The transcript of the specific segment is pasted below:

==========================================

DOBBS: Well, the campaign against terrorist financing is
turning up some unusual cases, not all of them directly
related to terrorism, or at least we don't know whether they
are directly related to terrorism. The placement of two honey
shops in Yemen on the Treasury Department's list of terrorist
organizations has brought sharp scrutiny of honey imports --
honey imports. And that's that scrutiny that last week led
customs officials to discover a large amount of money in honey.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALLAN DODDS FRANK, CNN FINANCIAL NEWS
CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This small Brooklyn store,
called The Immigrant, sells luggage, clothing and American honey.
It hardly seems like the starting point for a tale of international
money smuggling, but authorities say it is.

The owner of the shop, Ali Alfatimi, is in this jail, held without bail on
charges of conspiring to transport money illegally from the United States.
The 45-year-old immigrant from Yemen also runs the adjoining travel
agency and laundromat, and, according to the federal complaint, a
money transport business.

He told U.S. customs agents that for at least the last 18 months, as
part of his travel agency and money transfer business, he employed
couriers to move cash to Yemen. Alfatimi's lawyer insists his client
was engaged in a routine transaction gone awry.

ALAN DREZIN, ATTORNEY FOR ALI ALFATIMI: The only crime that
we have here is in not reporting the transportation of money out of the
country. And my client maintains that it was his instructions that,
you know, he thought that the money was going to be properly reported.

FRANK (on camera): By whom did he think the money was going to be
properly reported?

DREZIN: Well, I presume by Mr. Nahshal.

FRANK (voice-over): Mr. Nahshal is Basam Nahshal, the 22-year-old
naturalized American from Yemen and Alfatimi's courier, caught at the
Delta terminal at Kennedy International Airport.

As Nahshal's 19 pieces of luggage went through security, seven cardboard
cartons similar to these, filled with containers of honey caught an inspector's
attention. Packed around the honey containers, $100,150 in cash. Customs
agents found Nahshal carrying another $26,413 in cash, along with $4,200 in
negotiable checks. And inside a suitcase, $10,000 in traveler's check.

Nahshal then called Alfatimi, who came to the airport, where both were arrested.

TREVOR HEADLEY, ATTORNEY FOR BASAM NAHSHAL: Mr. Alfatimi,
when he was arrested, he indicated that the money was in the boxes.
The money belonged to him and that my client had no knowledge that the
money was there.

FRANK: Still, for Nahshal, who for the last year or so, worked at this delicatessen
along the Brooklyn-Queens border, it was a lot of money.

(on camera): Basam Nahshal told us authorities he earned $1,000 a month
working at this deli. And he said he had no other assets, no checking account,
no savings account, no stocks and bonds.

(voice-over): In the complaint, the government says Alfatimi told Nahshal to
deliver the money to a man in Yemen authorities will not identify. Alfatimi's
lawyer claims the $100,000 in the honey belongs to his client.

DREZIN: My client was going to use that money to build a house in Yemen.
And basically, he was really sending it to himself or his family down there.

FRANK: So what about the money that Nahshal carried in his pockets?

HEADLEY: There were additional sums and some of which belonged to my
client. What part of it belonged to my client? I'm not prepared to say.

FRANK: Both men remain at the Metropolitan detention center, while facing
conspiracy charges carrying as much as five years in prison and fines of $250,000.
The complaint makes no mention of terrorists. And the defense attorneys insist
their clients have no connections to Osama bin Laden or his al Qaeda network.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

Until recently, honey shipments alone did not raise many eyebrows at international
airports. Since many people from Middle Eastern countries routinely take honey home
as gifts. In Yemen alone, a country of 16 million people, they imported nearly one
million pounds of American honey last year, 10 percent of America's export total -- Lou.

DOBBS: Well, if there's that kind of money within the boxes of honey, you could
understand its popularity in Yemen or almost anywhere else, couldn't you?

FRANK: It's better than getting a free coupon.

====================================================

Below is a link to a (CNN) story that reported on the bin Laden "honey connection":

http://cnn.com/2001/WORLD/meast/10/15/yemen.attacks.honey.ap/index.html

        jim

        farmageddon