SAN DIEGO (CN) - Two brothers from Ensenada, Baja California, were sentenced Monday to more than 3 years in prison for trying to smuggle $501,000 in cash from the United States to Mexico. Israel Del Toro-Barboza, 31, was sentenced to 46 months and Adin Del Toro-Barboza, 25, to 41 months. A federal jury convicted them in March.
U.S. Customs officers found $499,620 stuffed into a duffle bag, and the brothers carried another $1,291, as they tried to leave the country at Otay Mesa in the early morning in September 2009. Israel, who received the longer sentence, was driving.
"The duffle bag was concealed inside a sealed cardboard box in the cargo area of the van mixed in with 38 other cardboard boxes filled with shoes and other merchandise," the U.S. Attorney's Office said in announcing the sentences.
U.S. law requires that people who carry more than $10,000 in currency outside the country declare it.
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