In the post-9/11 era, container security has become paramount in the war against terrorism. The fear of terrorists attempting to smuggle weapons of mass destruction in a container has spotlighted the significance of identifying containers that have possibly been compromised. Officer Pardo has given countless courses on detecting and identifying seal tampering to CBP officers and other law enforcement agencies such as the FBI, CIA, state and local police, as well as shipping lines and container companies. To make Ray Pardo’s course widely available to all CBP officers and other law enforcement agencies, OTD elected to produce a series of training videos that will equip CBP officers with the knowledge to do their jobs well. The seal tampering video is the first in a series of videos. There will be 3 additional videos on concealment, each featuring land, sea, and air. The first in the series of videos will focus on container and commodity concealment; with later videos to address concealment methods used in POV’s, truck cabs, aircraft and vessels. The videos will review indications of concealment and the use of tools to find false compartments and traps.

Pardo demonstrates techniques used to detect container seal and door tampering in the container yard of New York Container Terminal (NYCT) at Howland Hook in Staten Island, NY

Catherine Hartman, an executive producer with Maslow Media, is spearheading the filming and production of the training videos. Hartman has done work for a variety of government agencies, including the FBI and the State Department, but has been working full time for CBP as an executive producer for the past two years. She has recently been recognized for her work on the Border Patrol recruitment video titled “Protecting the Homeland” that received airtime on local television stations along the Southwest border. She has received other various commendations and industry awards for her work with other agencies, including LEVA (Law Enforcement Video Association) and NAGC (National Association of Government Communicators). OTD uses the instructional system design process and adult learning principles and its goal is to develop training materials that address the needs of employees in an interesting, engaging and innovative manner. OTD has chosen Catherine Hartman to produce these films because of her dedication to ensuring that the learning material is conveyed in a manner that fully engages the audience using multimedia as well as a manner that is relevant and realistic for use in the field.

CBP’s own “MacGyver” Pardo has a solid reputation as a subject matter expert in the field of container security and anti-smuggling. Before starting his career with the U.S. Customs Service 22 years ago, Pardo was a diesel mechanic and welder. In 1984, Pardo became a Customs inspector and parlayed his technical knowledge to become known as the “MacGyver” of anti-smuggling detection. He has been a member of the Newark Anti-Terrorism Contraband Enforcement Team (AT-CET) for the last 15 years and has become a nationally recognized expert on smuggling and concealment methods. Back in the days when CET teams conducted full container strips solely in search of a “load of dope” and long before container-imaging equipment was used by the agency, Pardo would examine the seals and container doors of shipments that contained narcotics to determine how they had been compromised. After years of conducting surveillance and counter-surveillance of narcotics smuggling techniques, Pardo has become an expert at obtaining entry into any container without leaving any evidence of tampering. “To find contraband, it is all about looking at the fine details and spotting discrepancies. But the greatest force multiplier we have as an agency is taking the knowledge and experience of individual officers and making it widely available through training,’ says Pardo on his starring role in the video. Officer Pardo has also performed interviews for a variety of media such as CNN, Good Morning America, the Discovery Channel, Newsweek, and the New York Times. Because he is so renowned in this field, Pardo has been called upon to testify in court as an expert witness. In May of 2006, Officer Pardo testified in a federal criminal case regarding itemizer readings in a case of a container that had a false wall. Pardo’s expert testimony corroborated the testimony of one of the Haitian conspirators who cooperated with the prosecution that linked the container to a seizure of cocaine made by DEA agents to a Haitian smuggling ring who had used the container to smuggle almost 2,000 pounds of cocaine from Haiti in December 2003.