French nab flush mystery man in routine customs check

PARIS -- French customs officers have seized more than 1.9 million euros ($2.1 million) in cash during a random check on a car at a toll booth near the border with Spain.

The officers stopped a sedan car with a lone driver on Sept. 26 at the border town of Perthus. The 31-year-old man told them he was a businessman living in Hungary and was travelling home from Barcelona.

In the trunk of his car they found nearly 50,000 notes concealed behind the rear lights and in the spare wheel well. Nearly 30,000 of the notes were 50 euro bills.

The customs officers handed the man over to the police. He was placed under formal investigation for non-declaration of cash and money laundering, and was still being held in custody Friday.

The customs director for the region, Patrice Jimenez, told CBS News the man would only say he runs a business, and then invoked his right to silence. He was carrying residency papers for Hungary and Sweden but Jimenez said they're still working to confirm his real identity and nationality.

Jimenez said it was too early to determine where the money came from or what it might have been for. "We can't rule out anything," he said.

French customs officers conduct random checks at border town toll booths as there are no more restrictions on travel between France and its land neighbors, which all sit inside Europe's Schengen border-free zone.

This discovery was one of the highest in value for France in recent years. French customs officers seized a total of 64 million euros in all of 2014.

Filed by CBS Radio News correspondent Elaine Cobbe in Paris.