As the Somali fraud scandal probe widens, federal investigators say more than $130 million in bulk cash has been tracked leaving the Columbus, Ohio, airport bound for Minnesota.
That’s on top of recent reports that Transportation Security Administration agents detected nearly $700 million in cash in luggage leaving the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport in 2024 and 2025.
The North Star state’s massive welfare fraud, tied to the Twin Cities’ Somali community, continues to expand after recent allegations that the multi-billion-dollar heist includes day care centers, autism centers, home health care companies, and non-emergency transportation services.
The Trump administration has surged federal investigators and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol agents to the Twin Cities for more on-the-ground investigations, which prompted Minnesota and Twin Cities officials to file a lawsuit this week to stop the immigration operation.
Now, investigators are tracking the flow of cash out of airports. Just the News dubbed it the “Somali Suitcase Stash,” reporting that TSA officers tracked and flagged about $136 million in bulk cash leaving the Columbus airport since November 2023.
An official familiar with the investigation said it appears “a massive cash movement” involved multiple Somali immigrant communities in the West, Midwest, and South.
Couriers gathered the money from various communities and eventually brought luggage filled with currency to Minneapolis for flights overseas.
An Ohio attorney and whistleblower recently alleged that Medicaid fraud is happening among the Somali community in Columbus.
As investigators traced the money backwards throughout its journey, they discovered the operation in Columbus, U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials told Just the News.
U.S. citizens of Somali origin were carrying the cash and flew out of the Columbus airport enroute to either the airports in Minneapolis or Atlanta.
The couriers declared the cash as legally required on documents at the passenger checkpoints at John Glenn Columbus International Airport, officials said.
“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 told Just the News on Tuesday, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The link to Columbus, Ohio, follows another report by Just the News that revealed TSA detected nearly $700 million in cash in luggage leaving the Minneapolis airport in 2024 and 2025.
Officials said the cash frequently headed to Amsterdam and then Dubai where U.S. officials lost the tracking.
The TSA agents reportedly alerted U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Homeland Security Investigations during the Biden years, but they didn’t probe the money movements further.
President Donald Trump is taking notice, and so is Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rand Paul, R-Ky., despite feuding with President Trump.
“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,” Paul told podcaster Joe Rogan this week. “So, the poor Somalis sent like $700 million over the last couple of years.”
Paul also took to social media, sharing the Just the News report: “We’re at the tip of the iceberg. Hundreds of millions in cash were openly shipped overseas through our airports. As Homeland Security Chair, I’m launching an investigation because Americans deserve to know where this money went.”
We’re at the tip of the iceberg. Hundreds of millions in cash were openly shipped overseas through our airports. As Homeland Security Chair, I’m launching an investigation because Americans deserve to know where this money went.https://t.co/8N0i7KkiLX
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) January 14, 2026
Federal prosecutors have charged nearly 100 people in connection with various Minnesota fraud schemes that date back several years. The $250-million COVID-era Feeding Our Future case involved 78 defendants, and more than 50 have pleaded guilty.
The surge of federal resources followed a viral video by YouTuber and independent journalist Nick Shirley, who visited several daycare centers with a Minneapolis resident, David Hoch.
But as the probe grows, some have estimated the state’s fraud could top $9 billion, and most of it has been traced to Minneapolis’ Somali community.
A previous City Journal report alleged that millions of dollars were discovered leaving the Minneapolis and Seattle airports bound for Somalia over the years.
Ryan Thorpe and Christopher F. Rufo of the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank, even claimed the money landed in the hands of Islamic terror groups abroad including Al-Shabaab.
The House Oversight Committee recently launched an investigation into what Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz did and didn’t know about the extent of the fraud in his state.
The growing scandal prompted Walz to end his bid for a third term as governor, and Republican lawmakers at the state and federal level have called for him to resign.
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., has blasted Walz’s failures and also called for those involved in the fraud to be deported or denaturalized as citizens.
Minnesota state employees are providing evidence that could lead to the federal prosecution of Walz as well as Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, Emmer said.
The employees have aired grievances on an X account Minnesota Staff Fraud Reporting Commentary and faced retaliation for alerting officials of the fraud. Emmer said they have offered sworn whistleblower testimony confirming that Walz knew about the massive Somali fraud schemes but failed to act.
“If it’s true that Tim Walz knew about the rampant fraud and retaliated against whistleblowers, it’s not enough for him to just resign. He should leave the office in cuffs,” Emmer posted on X.
Paul said he wants to investigate the flow of cash through airports and whether it’s tied to the fraud.
“The Somalis were so good at it that they were sending hundreds of millions of dollars back overseas,” Paul told Rogan in a podcast that aired Tuesday. “So, I think we are at the tip of the iceberg.”
According to DHS officials, the cash-carrying Somali immigrant couriers moved startling amounts of cash out of Minnesota’s largest airports in recent years. The cash totaled approximately $342.37 million in 2024 and $349.4 million in 2025 from the Minneapolis airport alone, according to various reports.
The cash hauls were 99 percent larger than the foreign cash detected or declared in 2025 moving in luggage from the airports in Dallas-Fort Worth, Atlanta or John F. Kennedy International in New York City, the officials said. And it was 90% larger than the amounts that left Seattle, a major hub for Asian travelers.
Similarly, in 2024, the total currency discovered over $10,000 traveling internationally out of Atlanta and JFK was less than 1% of the currency discovered at Minneapolis. And the total in Dallas-Fort Worth in 2024 was 3% of the Minneapolis sums, while Seattle was just 6%, officials told Just the News.
