see also: in 2008 Fiscal Year in Review Field News Releases:   CBP Announces Fiscal Year 2008 Achievements for Baltimore Port of Entry   CBP Announces Fiscal Year 2008 Achievements for San Diego Air and Marine Unit   CBP Border Patrol Announces Fiscal Year 2008 Achievements for El Paso Sector   CBP Border Patrol Announces Fiscal Year 2008 Achievements for Ramey Sector   CBP Announces Fiscal Year 2008 Achievements for Arizona Ports of Entry   CBP Announces Fiscal Year 2008 Achievements for Midwest Ports of Entry   CBP Announces Fiscal Year 2008 Achievements for Buffalo Area Ports of Entry ...more on cbp.gov:   CBP News Releases   Press Officers

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Seattle – Over 21.5 million travelers were welcomed to the United States by the 1,425 officers and 110 agriculture specialists of U.S. Customs and Border Protection assigned to the Seattle field office during fiscal year 2008 (Oct. 1, 2007 – Sept. 30, 2008). Concealed among those travelers were 1,401 arrests waiting to be made, $3.5 million dollars in smuggled currency to be discovered and more than 70,000 pounds of illegal drugs to be seized.

The Seattle field office manages the 67 ports of entry stretching from the Pacific Ocean across the states of Washington, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota and Minnesota ending at Grand Portage on Lake Superior. Arriving at these various ports were 1.3 million commercial trucks delivering approximately eight million shipments of goods, 8.2 million automobiles, 16,000 trains, 30,000 international aircraft and 5,000 vessels and small boats.

“This is both a tremendous privilege and responsibility as CBP maintains a constant vigilance at our Nation’s borders to prevent the entry of terrorists and their weapons,” said Seattle Field Office Director Michele James. “We are extremely proud of the role our agency performs in reducing crime in communities throughout America by interdicting shipments of illegal narcotics and arresting criminal aliens and domestic fugitives crossing our borders while facilitating the flow of legitimate international trade and travel.”

During the year, the Seattle field office deployed 11 CBP officers to Texas in support of Hurricane Ike relief efforts. In addition, two new NEXUS enrollment centers in Sweetgrass, Montana, and International Falls, Minnesota, were opened during FY 2008 and the NEXUS participant numbers in the Seattle field office increased by 122 percent over the previous fiscal year. NEXUS is a joint program with the Canada Border Services Agency that allows pre-screened and approved travelers faster processing.

Facilitating that flow of over 14 million foreign nationals through the Seattle field office ports has resulted in the refusal of a growing number of inadmissible aliens. In FY 2008, over 11,000 aliens were deemed inadmissible into the United States. Most aliens are simply permitted to withdraw their application for entry but 4,284 criminal aliens were expeditiously removed and returned directly to the country from which they entered, representing a 14 percent increase in removal cases.

CBP officers screen all people, vehicles, conveyances and goods entering the United States. While anti-terrorism is the primary mission, the inspection process at the ports of entry associated with this mission results in impressive numbers of enforcement actions in all categories.

Arrests of fugitives involved all manner of crimes stretching across the country. For example, CBP officers in Seattle arrested a Texas man wanted for child sexual assault when he arrived aboard a passenger ferry from Victoria, British Columbia. CBP officers at Sweetgrass, Mont., apprehended a Canadian citizen wanted in California for cocaine distribution. A Mexican national arrested in Pembina, N.D., was wanted for assault with a deadly weapon in Los Angeles. At Lynden, Wash., officers apprehended a man wanted in Montana for sale of amphetamine. In Raymond, Mont., a military deserter was taken into custody, while a Canadian citizen was arrested in Baudette, Minn., for stealing a car in Ontario.

CBP continues to protect families and consumers by seizing prohibited, unlawful or undeclared goods upon importation into the U.S. In Seattle, officers seized several Chinese-manufactured shipments of toy Aqua Dots totaling over 44,000 pounds because they contained butanediol, which if ingested may induce nausea, amnesia, depressed breathing, unconsciousness and death. Officers also seized counterfeit “Coach” fashion belts worth more than $2 million. Counterfeit goods cost U.S. businesses in excess of $200 billion annually and are directly responsible for the loss of more than 750,000 American jobs. Combating this problem remains an important part of the CBP mission. CBP officers also targeted money being smuggled across the border for illicit purposes. One of the most significant seizures occurred in Blaine, Wash., when an x-ray image of a commercial truck revealed $1.1 million of currency concealed in hollowed out sleeping bunks. In two separate seizures, CBP officers in Sumas, Wash., discovered over $500,000 of illicit narcotics money hidden in secret compartments.

In today’s world there is an ever-present threat of the intentional or unintentional infestation of our agriculture food chain, including agro-terrorism. The CBP agriculture specialists of the Seattle field office are charged with protecting a $1.5 trillion agriculture industry by preventing the introduction into the United States of plant pests and plant diseases that could prove devastating to livestock, crops and forests. Many travelers entering the U.S. may unknowingly carry threats that would be damaging to our food supply and natural resources. Imported agricultural products and live animals can harbor destructive insects like exotic fruit flies and Asian longhorned beetles, and animal diseases including Exotic Newcastle Disease, Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy also knows as Mad Cow Disease, Foot-and-Mouth Disease and Avian Influenza. These tiny invaders could destroy large portions of our agriculture and forest resources, costing farmers, ranchers and consumers billions of dollars.

Each and every day, CBP agriculture specialists intercept potentially destructive exotic pests arriving from foreign countries at our ports of entry. Asian gypsy moths and Mexican fruit flies are two recent examples. On ten separate occasions, agriculture specialists in Seattle detected Asian gypsy moth egg masses on cargo ships and cargo containers. These detections prompted increased inspections and detections nationwide for these highly dispersive and destructive pests. In Blaine, Wash., agriculture specialists found live Mexican fruit fly larvae inside empty trucks returning from Canada, known to have carried mangoes into Canada from Mexico. These cases are notable not just because of the pest threat, but also because they identified new pathways by which these pests might enter the country undetected.

CBP’s Seattle field office maintains constant vigilance to prevent the entry into our nation of terrorists and their weapons while carrying out traditional border enforcement responsibilities across five states and three time zones.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is the unified border agency within the Department of Homeland Security charged with the management, control and protection of our nation's borders at and between the official ports of entry. CBP is charged with keeping terrorists and terrorist weapons out of the country while enforcing hundreds of U.S. laws.