They did it again. Customs inspectors, agents, import specialists, and the Newark Enforcement Evaluation Team (EET) descended on an illegal shipment of 10,000 switchblade knives, weapons that smugglers had disguised to look and work like keychain lighters. The disguise was so clever, and the smugglers' method so ingenious, that discovering the knives was comparable to finding the proverbial "needle in a haystack."

Larry Slutsky, Trade Operations Branch Chief at Newark, knows better-that it's teamwork, not luck that's driving the seizure rates and bolstering team morale. "This is an excellent example of the various disciplines within Customs working together towards our common goal of protecting the American people," says Slutsky.

EET ensures examination
Inspector James Miller, of Port Baltimore, was the first to warn the New York EET that a possible shipment of illegal knives might be entered into the Port of Newark by a local importer. Dana Salas, Newark trade enforcement specialist, researched the situation and discovered national criteria that mandated a review of documentation already in the system. She also discovered there was local cargo criteria in the database as well, and it pointed to the same kind of merchandise Miller had described.

Salas decided a local alert was in order. She contacted Supervisory Inspector Carol Fowlkes, Documents Analysis Unit, and Newark field analysis specialists (FAS), to coordinate a strategic alert, one that would encourage inspectors to examine goods falling into a certain category.

"This collaborative team effort recognized, captured, focused, shared, and used the knowledge of many Customs personnel." -Assistant Area Director Larry D. Lewis

The alert was scheduled to expire, but on two separate occasions, Salas stepped in and made sure that didn't happen. Finally, her hunch paid off-the alert hit on three shipments, with the last hit resulting in the seizure of 10,000 switchblade knives.

The story unfolds
Senior Inspector German Cambero knew something was wrong with the shipment right from the start. When Cambero stuck his hand into a box of what had been marked as "novelty items," he discovered the illegal knives. As a result import specialists Michael Volpe and Patricia Conroy entered cargo criteria in the database that registered a "red flag" on certain knife imports.

Next, the group called in trade operations team 227 to review samples of the knives. Some of the switchblades were disguised as cigarette lighters, others as key chain lighters. The team knew this wasn't the first time these kinds of knives had been discovered; they had already seized a shipment of the same knives-cargo that had come in via a different importer in June 2001. At that time, the discovering officer was Import Specialist Ariel Silverman, joined by team veterans Volpe and Cambero.

As trade operations team 227 examined samples of the knives, an intelligence report compiled by Evelyn Mazziotta, Team Leader, came rushing back to them. Import Specialist Patricia Conroy called the Office of Field Operations liaison group, ICAT, to share what she knew was critical information.

Photo Credit: Donna Mannisi

Switchblade knives disguised as keychain lighters seized by Customs Newark. Teamwork played a major role in seizure.

"These lighter knives are similar to those found in the wreckage of the United Airlines flight hijacked by terrorists that crashed in Pennsylvania on September 11 [2001]," Conroy told ICAT Acting Group Supervisor Neil Pitagno and Supervisory Inspector Maryam Assad.

Assad rushed samples of the knives to the Federal Aviation Administration at Newark Airport to alert airport security to the danger. Security personnel examined the lighters and passed on the information to their contacts.

Supervisory Import Specialist Danielle O'Neil reviewed the shipment's entry documentation. It was then that she recognized that the invoice and packing list referred to importers that she remembered from her involvement with the EET process.

O'Neil rushed to share her discovery with the agents and the team. Since 1999, the EET has been working to develop and implement law enforcement actions to deal with possible business trade violations of Customs laws, and suddenly O'Neil was an important part of that process.

All the information from these various Customs disciplines eventually translated into a search warrant. Customs agents from the SAIC Newark Office set out to visit a local New York/Newark importer of switchblade knives.

But the teamwork didn't end there.

Intelligence shared
The discovery and the results of their collaboration spurred the group to expand its efforts, and to continue its work with the Intelligence Collection Analysis Team (ICAT). The goal now was to replicate the process that had led to the discovery of the illegal switchblades to discover other shipments of concealed weapons.

Intelligence Research Specialist Donna Mannisi set the initiative in motion, developing additional, sophisticated intelligence on different types of knives and ways they might be concealed.

Customs is sharing intelligence information within the agency and with other law enforcement organizations in ways never envisioned before September 11. The service is focusing on teamwork, and on the willingness of its employees to take the initiative and do whatever needs to be done to find any and every kind of threat to our national security-before it finds us.