Smuggling Mexico Money

Ansel remembers in the 40’s there was a limit to how much money you could legally bring out of Mexico into the US… Ansel forgot how much the limit was, probably $25,000 a year he guessed. There was a guy in Mexico that had a lot that he wanted to bring in, so he had a scheme of smuggling the money in through canner horses. He got everything he was going to smuggle in U.S. $1000.00 bills. He’d take 5 of the $1000.00 bills and wrap them in plastic folded just once lengthwise, then he’d slit the skin under the mane and put 5-$1000. wrapped in plastic and folded lengthwise in the incision, crudely stitch them up, and put them on a truck to be taken to a slaughter house in Arizona. Then there was someone in the Arizona slaughter house that would take the bills out. They used 17000 head of horses to smuggle the money through the kill plant. ($85,000,000 million)

Louie Krentz’ mother lived on the US – Mex border in Douglas AZ and knew about the 17000 horses that came across the border and 12000 head of cattle. Louie Krentz’ mother lived on the ranch on the border that their father homesteaded. Louie was a high roller, he furnished the money for Ansel to buy yearlings to run on the ranch in Harney Co. Ansel got half of the gain increase. Louie was living in San Bruno at the time, he and a another fellow were partners on a race horse. He also had an amusement center, pin ball machines and such. Ansel had the Lawen and Burns property at the time and ran an ad in the Western Livestock Journal classifieds looking for someone to run steers on a percent of gain on the Harney ranch. Louie responded to Ansel’s add and that’s how they became friends. When there was air service into Burns, Louie would fly up just to hunt ducks for the weekend at Lawen. Louie’s brother was 1st Vice President for the Bank of Arizona, Mackelvany borrowed 32 million one year to run cattle just outside of Yuma. And he lent Smith Company 8 million to build a slaughter house in PHX. He must have been pretty important.