US customs seizes 76 tons narcotics, arrests 33,000 immigrants at California ports in FY 2014

Reported by: `Customs Today Report January 27, 2015

SAN DIEGO: US Customs and Border Protection officers conducting security operations at California’s ports of entry with Mexico performed more than 68 million inspections of travelers, seized more than 76 tons of illegal narcotics and apprehended more than 33,000 immigration violators during federal fiscal year 2014.

CBP’s field office in San Diego manages the work of more than 2,000 front-line federal officers and agriculture specialists at passenger and commercial border crossings at San Ysidro, Otay Mesa, Tecate, Calexico, Andrade and the San Diego air and sea ports of entry.

During the fiscal year, which ran from October 1, 2013 through September 30, 2014, CBP officers at ports in San Diego and Imperial counties inspected almost 27 million private vehicles, more than 1 million trucks, slightly more than 100,000 buses and 7,000 flights, and more than 18 million pedestrians entering the U.S.

The total amount of narcotics seized during the year at California’s six ports of entry with Mexico decreased 25 percent compared to the previous period. Marijuana seizures decreased 26 percent to 132,075 pounds; cocaine seizures decreased 44 percent to 4,869 pounds; heroin seizures decreased 2 percent to 1,677 pounds; and methamphetamine seizures increased 8 percent to 14,732 pounds.

The focused enforcement efforts by California’s border ports accounted for 30 percent of the marijuana, 12 percent of the cocaine, 39 percent of the heroin and 63 percent of the methamphetamine seized at air, land, and sea ports of entry nationwide.

Seizures of hidden and unreported currency heading out of the United States illegally decreased 7 percent to $7.09 million.

The apprehension of individuals with outstanding felony warrants for such crimes as homicide, robbery and assault remained similar to last year’s numbers: 2,065 this fiscal year compared to 2,096 arrests during the same period last year.

CBP agriculture specialists performed 8,156,279 agricultural inspections in the passenger environment and 66,519 inspections in the cargo environment. These inspections resulted in 73,098 seizures of prohibited plant materials, meat, or animal products and finding 719 cargo shipments that did not meet the U.S. entry requirements, causing the shipments to either be sent back, treated, or destroyed.

At cargo processing facilities in Southern California, CBP personnel collected an estimated $224 million in duties, money which goes into the national treasury to fund government expenditures. CBP officers and import specialist processed merchandise, imported into the U.S., worth an estimated $42.8 billion.

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