see also: in May 2007 News Releases:   Agriculture Inspection, User Fee Requirements Begin June 1 for Commercial Trucks, Railroad Cars Entering U.S. From Canada   Customs and Border Protection starts 2007 Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act Cycle   New Mexico Border Patrol Seizes Nearly $1.5 Million in Marijuana   Suspected Child Molester, FBI Top 10 Fugitive Turned Over to Buffalo Customs and Border Protection   Jayson P. Ahern Announced as Next CBP Deputy Commissioner   CBP Border Patrol Continues Recruiting With Help of Car #28   Electronic Manifest Filing Now Mandatory in Michigan and New York ...more on cbp.gov:   CBP News Releases   Press Officers

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Dayton, Ohio – U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers in Dayton, Ohio seized 957 small blood diamonds, also known as conflict diamonds, last month at the DHL-HUB in Wilmington, Ohio for violations of the Clean Diamond Act.

CBP officers found the diamonds during a routine inspection of DHL express mail based on the manifest, which listed the contents as 960 stones; and the invoice, which described the contacts as flattened diamond stones. The diamonds, valued at more than $10,000, were packed within a Ziploc bag inside of a cardboard box surrounded by packing material within a small DHL box. The shipment of diamonds was sent from a company in Cervello, Barcelona, Spain to a company of the same name in Decatur, Ind.

The diamonds were seized for violations of the Clean Diamond Act, which states that the Kimberly Process Certificate Scheme requirements must be followed. The Kimberly Process Certificate Scheme is an international certification regimen for rough diamonds based primarily on national certifications and on internationally agreed minimum standards adopted by participating countries in January of 2003 to counter the trade in illegal “conflict” diamonds.

In order for this process to be complete, two things must happen: the diamonds must be sealed in tamper resistant container and must be accompanied by a Kimberly Process Certificate. A tamper resistant container is defined as packaging having an indicator or barrier to entry that could reasonably provide visible evidence that tampering has occurred. If there is no certificate or the diamonds are not in a tamper resistant container, the diamonds must be seized. In this case, the diamonds were seized because they were found to be packed in a simple Ziploc bag, which was not in compliance with the tamper resistant container requirement, and they did not have an accompanying Kimberly Process Certificate.

“This is the first seizure ever of conflict diamonds at the Express Consignment Operation in Wilmington, Ohio,” said Chicago U.S. Customs and Border Protection Director of Field Operations David Murphy, “This seizure is a result of the hard work that our CBP officers do everyday to identify imports whose trade impacts the peace, safety, security and human rights of affected international lives.”

According to the Office of Foreign Asset Control’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the trade in conflict diamonds is a matter of serious international concern, which can be directly linked to the fuelling of armed conflict and the activities of rebels movements aimed at undermining or overthrowing legitimate governments.

This seizure is now the property of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. No arrests have been made at this time.

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.