TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) A Topeka man has been charged with trying to smuggle $150,000 in cash from Bagram Air Field in Afghanistan to Kansas.
The government alleges in a criminal information filed Tuesday that Donald Garst, 50, tried to evade currency reporting laws in May 2011 by concealing cash in a DHL shipping box for transport to Topeka.
The U.S. attorney’s office says Garst was formerly with the Army National Guard, but was working as a private contractor in Afghanistan at the time.
Garst’s lawyer, Christopher Joseph, says in an email that nothing in the charge alleges the cash was obtained unlawfully. Joseph says Garst acknowledges he mailed the money, and that details about why he did so will be revealed in future court proceedings.
