In most cases, small ports have fewer opportunities to make major drug busts, so inspectors at the Port of Mayaguez, P.R., like inspectors at other small ports, have to be satisfied with making sure the paper work is in order and enforcing Cuban embargo provisions. So when management told CET (Contraband Enforcement Team) teams in San Juan that they would be detailed to Mayaguez, their response was usually something like, "Oh well ... at least it's a change of pace."

But not any longer. Today, an assignment to Mayaguez elicits a different response: "Great, that gives me a chance to catch some dope from the Millennium!"

The Millennium Express, a ferryboat operating between Mayaguez and the Dominican Republic, has been giving inspectors in Mayaguez plenty of load-catching opportunities since it opened for business in April 2001. And it has made the normally quiet northwest corner of Puerto Rico a major entry point for narcotics and undeclared currency.

Photo Credit: SI Alberto Hernandez

Customs Inspector Miguel Montalvo conducts primary inspection on passengers in vehicles departing the Millennium Express.

Rising seizures
Inspectors have made more than 150 seizures from passengers coming and going on the Millennium ferry. This includes 28 undeclared currency cases and 38 drug seizures. CET teams seized $507,322 in currency, more than 100 kilos of cocaine, more than 100,000 steroid pills, and dozens of stolen vehicles -- the highest numbers in Mayaguez field operations history.

In comparison, there were only 30 drug and undeclared currency seizures combined during the one-year period before the ferry started operations.

Acting Mayaguez Port Director Juan Hurtado puts the increases into their proper context: "The Millennium certainly helps, but so does the [Caribbean] CMC's [Customs Management Center] decision to give some control to the CET inspectors regarding the processing of ferry passengers. That made a big difference in the number and size of seizures. Plus, CET gets help from canine units and the local police when they need it."

There's always been sporadic ferry service to and from the Dominican Republic. But CET inspectors didn't control the inspection process, and the non-CET inspectors were understaffed. Plus, non-CET inspectors were also handicapped by the lack of specialized resources like K-9 units, which are so critical to the intensive inspections of vehicles coming off ferries.

The largest drug quantities are still stashed inside vehicles on the Millennium. This fact demonstrates that giving CET control over ferryboat passengers has been a major factor in seizure increases.

CET's role, and the role of the local police who sometimes work with CET, is best illustrated by a seizure made late last September: 96,000 tablets of Ecstasy, with a street value of $2,880,000. Officer Carlos Rivera of the Mayaguez police force and Inspector Hernandez discovered the tablets hidden in a false compartment under the front seat of a minivan.

Inspector Hernandez captures the feelings of all Mayaguez inspectors about the past year's increases when he says, "The only real action around here used to be for the Border Patrol agents, but now, with the Millennium, U.S. Customs is also getting to have some fun."