Was $700 million found at Minneapolis airport
Executive summary
Federal reporting shows that Transportation Security Administration screening flagged nearly $700 million in U.S. cash detected in passengers’ luggage leaving Minneapolis–St. Paul International Airport across 2024–2025, but the phrase “flagged” in multiple accounts is not the same as a single seizure of $700 million discovered at once, and the underlying reporting rests largely on accounts fed to Just the News and repeated by other outlets [1] [2] [3].
1. The core claim: what reporters say was “found”
Multiple outlets summarize reporting that TSA screening identified about $342.37 million in luggage from Minneapolis in 2024 and $349.4 million in 2025 — totals frequently summed as “nearly $700 million” over two years — language drawn from John Solomon’s Just the News and picked up by local and national sites [1] [2] [3].
2. What “flagged” versus “found” means in the published accounts
The accounts consistently use the word “flagged” or “detected” rather than describing a single, consolidated cache recovered at the airport; that nuance matters because “flagged” in these stories refers to cash identified through screening or reporting systems over many incidents, not a single $700 million suitcase or pile discovered in one event [1] [4].
3. Who authorities say was involved and where the money allegedly went
Homeland Security officials quoted in these reports say a small number of couriers — often identified as Somali or of Somali descent — repeatedly transported large amounts on routes through Amsterdam and Dubai en route to Somalia and other destinations, patterns those officials suggest are atypical compared with other major U.S. airports [4] [2] [1].
4. Official attention and political follow‑up
Federal investigative resources reportedly have been deployed to Minnesota and lawmakers have pressed for answers: a Senate Judiciary release cites the “nearly $700 million” figure and references FBI and Treasury interest, and multiple outlets note federal probes into suspected fraud or illicit cash flows tied to these detections [5] [6].
5. Media sourcing, amplification and competing agendas
The narrative in national outlets and dozens of redistribution sites traces back to reporting by Just the News and statements from unnamed Homeland Security officials; conservative and partisan sites have amplified the story with sharper criminal framing and partisan implications, while social posts have extrapolated the data into sensationalized claims — underscoring that much of the published detail is second‑hand and politically leveraged [3] [7] [8].
6. What the available reporting does not prove (and what remains unknown)
The assembled coverage does not provide direct public release documents from TSA or HSI in these sources showing consolidated seizures equaling $700 million, nor does it prove the cash was illicit in every instance; what exists in the cited reporting are flagged totals compiled over two years, assertions by officials to a reporter, and subsequent federal inquiries — gaps that mean the headline “$700 million found at Minneapolis airport” overstates what the currently available sources strictly confirm [1] [4] [5].
7. Bottom line for readers parsing the claim
The most accurate, source‑backed formulation from the reporting is that TSA screening flagged nearly $700 million in U.S. cash carried in passenger luggage departing Minneapolis–St. Paul over 2024–2025 and that federal agencies are investigating patterns described by those sources; saying “$700 million was found at Minneapolis airport” without the temporal and procedural qualifiers conflates many flagged incidents into a single dramatic discovery and goes beyond what the cited reports directly document [1] [2] [5].