From September 3 to September 7, a multi-agency taskforce made up of U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Safeguarding, Intervention and Trade Compliance (SITC) officers, USDA Plant Protection and Quarantine officers, and US Customs and Border Protection agriculture specialists conducted intensified passenger and cargo operations at the two land border crossings in Detroit, Mich. During the operation, 1,453 passenger vehicles were sent for intensified inspections, yielding a total of 830 kg. of contraband, such as plants, plant products, animal/meat products, and other things to eat. A total of 221 trucks were sent for intensified trade verifications, and nine of these were unloaded. During the operation, a total of 25 civil penalty violations were issued, totaling $3,850.

Photo Credit:  Wendy Beltz

Some of the concealed fruit seized during the special operation.

The Ambassador Bridge and the Detroit/Windsor Tunnel are busy conduits for traffic entering the United States. While both land border crossings are quite different, they both carry traffic to the same general area in Detroit. Both passenger and commercial traffic can use any of the major area highways to quickly move agricultural commodities to every city in the United States. Interstate 75 serves as a pipeline from Detroit to Florida, and vehicles using Interstate 94 can reach Chicago in about 4 hours.

Previous operations at the land border crossings in Detroit, Mich., Pembina, N.D., and Buffalo, N.Y., have shown that many prohibited agricultural commodities carrying pests and diseases are regularly brought into the United States. Many of these items, purchased in Toronto, are not native to Canada. In September 2003, SITC officers on a Border Patrol blitz in upstate New York intercepted a cargo van containing smuggled Bangladeshi citrus products infested with pests and citrus diseases. The merchandise was consigned to an importer in the Bronx; however, the products were first sent to Toronto and then sent to New York through the Champlain border crossing. The driver told officers that he had done this several times in the past.

Exotic fruits and vegetables have also been found in passenger vehicles. Products were concealed in luggage, laundry bags, under seats, in consoles, in the air filter cases, and mixed in with baby clothes and diapers.

The blitz
Two teams of SITC officers and CBP agriculture specialists worked on two 10-hour shifts to provide 24-hour coverage at either the Ambassador Bridge or the Detroit/Windsor Tunnel. Both teams were responsible for monitoring passenger and cargo operations. The special cargo operation at the Ambassador Bridge ran concurrently with normal cargo operations at the Fort Street facility. All team leaders were instructed to minimize the impact of traffic logjams caused by this special operation. CBP Agriculture Inspection (AI) provided two agriculture K-9 units from JFK International Airport and O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, which were stationed at the Ambassador Bridge. SITC also utilized a mobile x-ray van to screen passenger baggage at the Ambassador Bridge. CBP provided a dedicated Contraband Enforcement Team (CET) to provide security and support as necessary.

SITC drafted a detailed standard operating procedure (SOP) approved by CBP management. Since this was an operation at a port of entry, CBP was the lead agency. Because CBP also handles a variety of law enforcement duties, the CET team would take control of any situation that fell beyond the scope of the special operation. CBP would also be responsible for the documentation and issuance of all civil penalties and violations, and provide SITC with all copies of documents associated with these activities. CBP also agreed to enter all violations into the Treasury Enforcement Communications System (TECS).

To avoid confusion, all officers at the primary lanes (cargo and passenger) were provided with bright green referral slips that indicated that a vehicle had been selected exclusively for this special operation.

Before the operation, SITC and CBP compiled a list of previous violators. Primary officers were instructed to send all trucks on the “hot-sheet” to secondary. Cargo operations at Fort Street varied based upon the traffic. On busier days, the teams worked alongside a cargo x-ray unit and conducted tailgate inspections in the parking lot. During the holiday weekend, when commercial traffic was lighter, tailgate inspections and full de-vans were conducted at the Fort Street docks. At the completion of the operation, CBP submitted and documented all pests and disease information on an interception record.

Results
Passenger operations
A total of 830 kg. (1,825 lbs.) of prohibited material was seized from 536 vehicles. Approximately 80 percent of all seizures were made at the Ambassador Bridge. Cars and minivans made up 58 percent of all vehicles surveyed. The greatest number of inspections was conducted on Labor Day, as more vehicles made entry on the holiday. Approximately 46 percent (379 kg) of the contraband was plants and plant products. Citrus products were most commonly intercepted, followed by longans—a tropical fruit, apples, and mangoes. A variety of exotic fruit was seized including rambutans, litchis, star fruit, mangosteens, langsat, sapote, and guavas. A total of 451 kg. of animal/meat products was seized. Most of this was ruminant products (i.e. beef and lamb), that are prohibited because of mad cow restrictions. Officers also refused entry of a car with live finches. Most of the prohibited plants and plant products were destroyed by grinding. All other prohibited material incinerated.

Photo Credit: Jamie Berlowitz

An assortment of meat products seized at the crossings in Detroit

A total of 25 passenger violations were issued totaling $3,850. A penalty of $100 was issued when the occupants failed to declare prohibited/restricted items. A penalty of $250 was issued when prohibited/restricted items were concealed and not declared.

Commercial operations
During the operation, a total of 275 trucks were referred to secondary. Approximately 80 percent (221) of those trucks made entry at the Ambassador Bridge. Ninety-two percent of the trucks that were referred to secondary were examined. Nine trucks were unloaded at Fort Street. The USDA issued no violations, but CBP agriculture specialists issued a civil penalty to an importer for failing to declare 70 cases of rutabagas. The consignee was a previous violator who was listed on the special operation “hot-sheet.”

Conclusions
The special operation in Detroit over the Labor Day weekend went incredibly smooth. Strong support and participation by all agencies was a major contributing factor to its success. A clear and concise SOP was brilliantly executed by team players working for both agencies.

The SITC teams worked seamlessly with the CBP officers. Primary officers were extremely careful that backups in the secondary inspection area not occur, and would stop selecting vehicles once the parking spaces assigned to the operation were filled. Neither CBP nor USDA received any written complaints about traffic back-ups as the result of this operation.

The x-ray van saved officers a lot of time, processing 456 packages during the special operation. There were some seizures and penalties issued based upon images generated from the x-ray van. Officers were able to process bags at a much faster rate than by hand searching each bag. The mobile x-ray van used by SITC officers made the detection of fruits and vegetables quite easy when the plant materials were concealed among bags with clothes.

K-9 teams inspected more than 100 vehicles during the special operation. Officers seized prohibited/restricted materials from approximately 25 percent of the vehicles examined by the K-9 teams. The teams were most effective in examining recreational vehicles, buses, and engine compartments. Because the dogs used for this operation were cargo dogs, the handlers had to train the dogs on specific commodities that are more frequently found in a passenger setting. The larger cargo dogs were useful when searching passenger vehicles because they were able to jump into the trunks of cars, and into the passenger areas of vans and SUVs.

Education and public outreach are major objectives for the USDA SITC program. SITC officers distributed outreach materials to travelers. When contraband was detected and seized, the officers explained why the products were not enterable. In addition to travelers getting an education, several CBP officers thanked the SITC officers for educating them on USDA policies and regulations.

SITC had determined that passenger vehicles from Toronto pose a certain risk of carrying live actionable pests into the United States. Most of the violations were issued to passenger vehicles traveling back to local states—Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin. However one violation was issued to an individual with an address in San Diego, Calif., who failed to declare jackfruit, rambutans, mangosteens and custard apples.

Based on intelligence gathered during the special operation, SITC plans to conduct further operations at both of the land border crossings in Detroit. SITC is particularly interested in monitoring small courier vehicles and box trucks that enter during the nights and weekends. There is also an interest in monitoring previous violators at both the Fort Street Cargo Facility and through the railway.

This was not the only special operation where SITC and CBP worked side by side to crack down on the importation of prohibited agricultural and meat items. Operations like this one take place all across the northern border several times each year: in Pembina, N.D.; Sweetgrass, Mont.; Buffalo, N.Y.; and other ports. This type of cooperation gives another meaning to one face at the border.

This operation would not have been possible without the coordinated efforts of the Detroit DFO; the port director; CBP supervisors, officers, and agriculture specialists; USDA’s Investigative Enforcement Service; USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service; U.S. Food and Drug Administration; Donna West and CBP K-9 teams sent from JFK and Chicago; Miami and JFK Plant Identification Stations; USDA State Plant Health Director-Mich, Willie Harris; SITC Eastern Region Supervisor; and the SITC officers who participated in this operation.