[tripod]

I am certain there are all kinds of phony check schemes going on - but for 5 million at a pop? It still doesn't compute with me. The second part of your thought does make sense. Supose he was a decoy while someone else on that flight was bringing in something else. I bet he would have had a whole group of inspectors tied up.

[capydick]

Yea - the 5 million is absurd but, that may be the point:

1)Decoy gets caught with a number of phoney checks written for HUGE amounts.

2)Feds and press make big deal of the bust.

3)Meanwhile, a peace loving member of Islam gets thru customs with nary a notice with checks written in smaller denominations or something else which aids their Jihad.

Hopefully the Feds are looking at the manifest to see who else was on that flight but, it's probably too late for any action by now. Another possible win for the bad guys.