The Minnesota welfare fraud scandal just got a whole lot bigger.
Federal investigators uncovered something shocking.
And new details about Somali cash couriers emerged that have the FBI on red alert.
TSA Tracked $130 Million In Minnesota Welfare Fraud Cash Through Columbus Airport
Federal agents discovered a new leg of the largest cash-smuggling operation in American history.
Transportation Security Administration officers at John Glenn Columbus International Airport flagged $136 million in bulk cash moving through passenger checkpoints since November 2023.
U.S. citizens of Somali origin flew the money from Columbus to either Minneapolis or Atlanta before the cash headed overseas.
The couriers declared everything legally on documents.
"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.
TSA agents tracked the money's path from Columbus to Minneapolis, then watched it disappear into Amsterdam and Dubai where U.S. officials lost the trail.
Officials now believe they uncovered a nationwide network pooling money from Somali immigrant communities across the West, Midwest, and South before funneling everything through Minneapolis.
The Scale Makes Major Airports Look Like Amateur Hour
TSA detected nearly $700 million in cash leaving Minneapolis airport during 2024 and 2025 alone.
That's roughly $1 million per day for two straight years.
Cash movements out of Minnesota ran 90 to 99 times larger than the total amounts moved through major international airports like John F. Kennedy in New York City, Seattle, or Atlanta.
TSA agents routinely flagged the suspicious activity throughout the Biden years.
But nobody in the Biden administration showed any interest in investigating until President Donald Trump took office.
Rand Paul Launches FBI Investigation Into Minnesota Fraud: 'Tip Of The Iceberg'
Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rand Paul launched an investigation after learning the full scope.
"The Somalis were so good at it that they were sending hundreds of millions of dollars back overseas," Paul told Joe Rogan on The Joe Rogan Experience Tuesday.
"So I think we are at the tip of the iceberg."
The couriers weren't even hiding what they were doing.
"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. So the poor Somalis sent like $700 million over the last couple of years," Paul explained.
The cash-smuggling operation connects directly to Minnesota's massive welfare fraud scandal where federal prosecutors estimate the schemes fleeced taxpayers of up to $9 billion.
More than 90 defendants, mostly of Somali descent, have been indicted with about half already convicted.
Biden Administration Ignored Tim Walz Fraud Warnings For Years
The scandal destroyed Governor Tim Walz's political career.
The Minnesota Democrat abandoned plans to run for re-election in 2026 after state whistleblowers came forward.
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer revealed that Minnesota state employees are providing evidence that could lead to federal prosecution of Walz.
"There are whistleblowers out there. Expect one or more of them to start going under oath," Emmer told Just the News.
"They not only told Tim Walz about the fraud while it was happening, but that Tim Walz ignored them and in many cases retaliated against them."
That retaliation included threatening to blackball whistleblowers from future employment, taking away health benefits and retirement benefits.
TSA agents flagged hundreds of millions in suspicious cash movements for years, but Biden officials told them to stand down.
Al-Shabaab Terrorist Funded Atlanta 9/11-Style Attack With Minnesota Welfare Fraud Money
Multiple law enforcement sources confirmed that stolen welfare money ended up funding al-Shabaab terrorists in Somalia.
The same terrorist organization that just tried to replicate 9/11 on American soil.
An al-Shabaab operative named Cholo Abdi Abdullah spent years planning to hijack a Delta flight and crash it into Atlanta's Bank of America Plaza.
Abdullah joined al-Shabaab in 2015 and received military training in explosives and weapons in Somalia.
The terrorist group funded his commercial pilot training in the Philippines from 2017 to 2019 through their extortion racket.
Abdullah researched Delta flights and searched for "tallest building in Atlanta" before focusing on the 55-story Bank of America Plaza.
He studied cockpit doors, researched air marshals, and tested whether he could bring a knife onto an aircraft.
Federal authorities arrested Abdullah in July 2019 before he could complete his instrument rating and get hired by a major airline.
He received two consecutive life sentences last month.
Treasury Investigation: Biden Let Al-Shabaab Terrorist Funding Flow From Minnesota
The stolen money moved through hawala networks, informal money-transfer systems that operate without banks or documentation.
Federal counterterrorism officials confirmed that al-Shabaab takes a cut of every dollar sent to Somalia through these networks.
"Every scrap of economic activity, in the Twin Cities, in America, throughout Western Europe, anywhere Somalis are concentrated, every cent that is sent back to Somalia benefits al-Shabaab in some way," a former Minneapolis Joint Terrorism Task Force official explained.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent opened a formal investigation into whether Minnesota taxpayer dollars were diverted into financial channels benefiting al-Shabaab.
The terrorist group controls regions of Somalia where the money flows, imposing taxes and extorting businesses.
Al-Shabaab's extortion system raised enough money to pay for pilot training aimed at killing thousands of Americans in another 9/11-style attack.
And Biden officials watched it happen without lifting a finger.
President Trump ended special immigration status for Somalians and designated multiple gangs and cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations.
The House Oversight Committee launched a major fraud investigation that led the FBI and Homeland Security to send hundreds of agents to Minnesota.
Rand Paul's investigation will determine exactly how much taxpayer money the Biden administration allowed to flow to terrorists who nearly pulled off another 9/11.
Sources:
- John Solomon, "Somali Suitcase Stash: Feds say $130 million moved from Ohio airport to Minnesota on way overseas," Just the News, January 13, 2026.
- Tom Emmer interview, "John Solomon Reports" podcast, January 14, 2026.
- Rand Paul interview, The Joe Rogan Experience #2437, January 13, 2026.
- Michael Dorgan, "Minnesota welfare fraud probe targets Somali hawala money transfers," Fox News, December 12, 2025.
- Christopher Rufo and Ryan Thorpe, "Minnesota Welfare Fraud: Some Funds Went to Al-Shabaab," City Journal, November 21, 2025.
- U.S. Department of Justice, "Kenyan National Sentenced to Life for Conspiracy to Commit 9/11-Style Terrorist Attack," December 22, 2025.