A federal investigation has identified Columbus, Ohio, as a newly discovered transit point in a vast suitcase-cash operation that authorities say moved hundreds of millions of dollars from U.S. Somali communities through Minneapolis and overseas, as lawmakers warn the scheme may be tied to massive welfare fraud.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
Federal investigators examining a large-scale cash courier network operating within Somali immigrant communities have uncovered a new leg of the operation centered at the Columbus, Ohio airport, where Transportation Security Administration officers flagged more than $130 million in bulk cash traveling in passenger luggage en route to Minnesota and then overseas, according to officials briefed on the case.
Homeland Security officials told reporters in an account reported by Just the News that TSA officers tracked and documented approximately $136 million in cash detected at outbound passenger checkpoints at John Glenn Columbus International Airport beginning in November 2023. The money, carried in suitcases, was transported by U.S. citizens of Somali origin who complied with federal disclosure requirements by declaring the cash, officials said.
According to the same Just the News reporting, the couriers typically flew from Columbus to Minneapolis or Atlanta, with investigators identifying a recurring pattern once the money reached Minnesota. “Typically, when they go to Minneapolis, they drop off the cash and then a subsequent courier travels abroad from Minneapolis to Dubai through Amsterdam,” one official familiar with the investigation said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Federal authorities believe the Columbus activity represents just one component of a far broader operation that pooled money from Somali immigrant communities across the West, Midwest, and South before funneling it through Minnesota for overseas transport. As agents traced the movement of the cash backward from Minneapolis, they identified Columbus as a previously unknown collection point, officials said.
The Ohio discovery builds on earlier findings exclusively reported last week that TSA agents detected nearly $700 million in cash leaving Minneapolis-area airports during 2024 and 2025, often routed through Amsterdam and onward to Dubai, where U.S. authorities lost visibility on the funds. Officials said TSA personnel routinely alerted investigators during the Biden administration, but the movements drew little sustained scrutiny until President Donald Trump returned to office last year.
Investigators said the volume of cash moved by Somali couriers out of Minnesota’s major airports was between 90 and 99 times greater than amounts detected at other large international hubs such as John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, Seattle, or Atlanta.
Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rand Paul said the revelations suggest investigators may be uncovering only a fraction of the overall operation. Appearing on Joe Rogan’s podcast in an episode aired this week, Paul said he is launching an investigation to determine whether the massive cash exports are connected to fraud schemes. “The Somalis were so good at it that they were sending hundreds of millions of dollars back overseas,” Paul said. “So I think we are at the tip of the iceberg.”
Paul noted that the transfers were openly declared. “You have to check off a box when it goes through the airport, and they weren’t even hiding that they were sending it back,” he said. “So the poor Somalis sent like $700 million over the last couple of years.”
The expanding money-movement probe coincides with a sweeping federal investigation in Minnesota into an alleged fraud scheme that prosecutors estimate may have siphoned as much as $9 billion in taxpayer-funded welfare benefits, much of it flowing to Somali immigrants in the Minneapolis area. The scandal has already derailed the political future of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat who abandoned plans to seek reelection in 2026, and prompted President Donald Trump to revoke special immigration protections for Somalis seeking refuge in the United States.
The case has also triggered a major investigation by the House Oversight Committee and led the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security to deploy hundreds of agents. Prosecutors have charged more than 90 defendants, most of Somali descent, with roughly half already convicted, according to officials.
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer said Minnesota state employees are now providing evidence that could place Walz under federal criminal scrutiny. Speaking Tuesday on the John Solomon Reports podcast hosted by Just the News, Emmer said whistleblowers are offering sworn testimony alleging Walz failed to act after being warned about the fraud. “That my friend should be enough for criminal charges. The man should be in cuffs,” Emmer said.
Emmer later confirmed that whistleblowers are cooperating with investigators and preparing sworn affidavits detailing how they alerted Walz and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, both Democrats, about the alleged fraud while it was ongoing. “There are whistleblowers out there,” Emmer said. “Expect one or more of them to start going under oath or offering affidavits that are signed, affidavits under oath, that they not only told Tim Walz about the fraud while it was happening, but that Tim Walz ignored them and in many cases retaliated against them.”
According to Emmer, the alleged retaliation included “threatening to blackball you from any future employment, threatening to take away your health benefits, threatening to take away your retirement benefits, and the list goes on.”
Federal officials continue to examine whether the massive cash transfers uncovered in Ohio and Minnesota were linked to the alleged welfare fraud, as investigators expand efforts to map the full scope of the money pipeline from U.S. airports to destinations overseas.
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