BASC began in 1995, when business leaders impressed by earlier anti-smuggling initiatives created by Customs for the carrier community began to design parallel programs. Unlike the earlier Carrier Initiatives, however, BASC was "business-owned," and drew on Customs expertise and the agency's advisory capabilities without establishing formal mandates. Fermin Cuza, Senior Vice President of International Trade and Worldwide Government Affairs at Mattel, developed the conceptual framework for BASC and quickly sold industry colleagues on the idea.

BASC works with business and industry to eliminate the use of legitimate cargo to smuggle illegal drugs and examines the entire commercial process to ensure appropriate security measures are in place to prevent commercial transactions from becoming a tool for the drug smuggler.

The First World BASC and Business Partner Conference in Colombia hosted more than 500 participants: government leaders from around the world, members of the international trade community, and representatives from BASC chapters in Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Panama, Ecuador, Costa Rica and Mexico the last country to embrace the initiative in March 2001. The Conference signaled an important milestone in the development of BASC, which was recognized and fully endorsed at the event by officials representing both the International Chamber of Commerce and the World Customs Organization, based in Brussels.

Representing U.S. Customs was Acting Commissioner Charles Winwood; Cathy Sauceda, Director of Industry Partnership Programs, and Ed Moriarty, Program Manager, Carrier Initiative Program, both from the Office of Field Operations; Tonja Marshall, Industry Partnership Programs, Office of Investigations; and Mark Fleming and Jerry Chavez, Customs Attachés to Colombia and Venezuela.

Foreign dignitaries included Gustavo Bell, the Vice President of Colombia, who attended the Conference with most of his Cabinet; and the Secretary General of the World Customs Organization, Michel Danet. While discussion was lively, by the end of the conference there was little doubt that industry leaders and government representatives at the highest levels were endorsing BASC as a mechanism that has become absolutely central to the growth and facilitation of world trade.

Illegal drugs remain big business
BASC is probably the best thing that's happened to the import community in many years, especially for honest business people operating in "source countries" - locations where criminal organizations continue to produce and export most of the illegal drugs that flood the U.S. In 2001, the international drug syndicate continues to outpace legitimate global trade in both productivity and innovation, churning out thousands of tons per day of cocaine, heroin, marijuana, and an assortment of specialty and designer drugs for valuable markets in the U.S. and abroad.

Every which way
The cartels' distribution process is efficient and varied. Cocaine, heroin, marijuana, and ecstasy come in through million-dollar tunnels commissioned by drug lords, underground corridors that snake beneath the southwest border. It enters via the bodies of human "mules" (men and women schooled by smugglers to swallow hundreds of drug-packed pellets) in condoms coated with olive or vegetable oil and filled with cocaine or heroin. Drugs have been transported across the U.S.-Mexico border in caskets, in the diapers of newborn infants, and in bowling balls, automobile tires, baby buggies, and the linings of wheelchairs. One drug courier, limping through Customs at Miami International Airport, was stopped when an Inspector noticed his suspicious gait. It turned out that several pounds of high-grade cocaine had been surgically implanted in the man's thighs.

As desperate or ingenious as these attempts may be, the irony is that most of the drugs that enter the United States without detection arrive hidden in commercial cargo, as parasitical shipments riding into the U.S. on the back of legitimate trade - trade valued at more than a $1.18 trillion per year.

Public-private partnerships counter international smuggling attempts

In 1984, Eastern Airlines became the first of many industry participants in a formal Carrier Initiative created by the U.S. Customs Service. It was a critical first step in a process that expanded quickly. Today, there are thousands of land, sea, and air participants representing business around the world. Participants who sign on agree to accept recommendations for increasing security at terminals and aboard aircraft, vessels, and other conveyances. In return, Customs provides training to employees responsible for baggage and cargo security, cargo selection, personnel security, and vessel and aircraft search.

In 1995, business leaders began to design parallel anti-smuggling programs - initiatives "owned" by industry, supported by Customs, and "certified" by recognized BASC chapters in Central and South America. Mattel's Fermin Cuza, who had once worked as a Customs District Director in California, convinced the import community that, as a public-private partnership, BASC would distinguish itself by its commitment to examining and securing each and every link in the manufacturing and shipping chain - a "soup to nuts approach" whose value, he told them, would be readily apparent to U.S. Customs.

Accomplishing together what law enforcement can't do alone
Cuza scored a knockout victory with BASC. The innovative partnership, which is "business-led and Customs-supported" combines best practices and good ideas culled from every part of the public and private sectors. It provides a forum where businesspeople and Customs officials can trade real world information. The BASC program also keeps its members up-to-date on the latest and best security practices in use.

From all appearances, BASC is generating significant rewards for everyone involved. Over the last five years, BASC members have helped Customs intercept hundreds of thousands of pounds of cocaine, heroin, and marijuana headed for communities in the U.S. Colombia was an early and eager candidate for BASC membership, and today, the Colombian business community is leading the campaign to extend international recognition to the anti-smuggling program. BASC chapters have appeared in cities and locations such as Medellin, Cali, Cartagena, Barranquilla, Pereira, and Bogota, some of which were once believed to "belong" exclusively to the drug lords. BASC chapters also have sprung up in Panama, Peru, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Venezuela, and Mexico.

BASC partnerships between U.S. Customs and its customers in the trade community are providing the public with a measure of security and a level of efficiency that enforcement agencies working alone often fail to achieve. Countries around the world are lobbying Customs for help in creating their own BASC chapters, and industry leaders are lining up to obtain "BASC Certification" - a status enjoyed only by companies that have undergone Customs training in anti-smuggling techniques and have satisfied their national BASC chapter requirements, implementing high security standards, and exercising due diligence.

During an average year, the U.S. Customs Service processes 10.8 million trucks; 5.3 million vessel cargo containers; 1.9 million railcars; 786,000 commercial aircraft; 220,000 vessels; 140,000 private aircraft; 123,200,000 vehicles; and 479.8 million passengers - it's impossible to search every potential carrier or to delay every cargo shipment for inspection. In fact, Customs resources allow the agency to inspect only about 3 percent of the commercial shipments that enter the United States. The integrity of the remaining cargo is ensured through methods like pre-clearance certification, random checks, and technology designed to winnow out actual and potential wrongdoers - standard responses to the dilemma posed by an exponential growth in imports and a parallel increase in smuggling attempts.