Southbound guns, cash intercepted

September 12, 2009 4:41 PM
By JOHN VAUGHN, BAJO EL SOL EDITOR

They've always been poised at the border to stop contraband from entering our country, but Customs officers have also sought to stop the flow of guns and currency in the other direction.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection's role in stopping weapons and currency smuggling gained attention following the Obama administration's announced commitment to help Mexico keep weapons and large sums of cash out of the hands of drug cartels that have been fighting literal street battles with that country's police and military.

But CBP officials say it's a mission that predated President Obama's meeting with Mexican President Felipe Calderon in Monterrey, Mexico, earlier this year, during which the issue of the smuggling was recognized as a mutual concern.

U.S. law requires weapons to be permitted or licensed before being taken out of the United States, and the CBP is tasked with enforcing that law as part of its overall mission of regulating the flow of people and merchandise across the border, said Pete Flores, CBP assistant director for trade in San Diego.

CBP also enforces a law that prohibits cash in the amount of $10,000 or more from being taken out of the country without first being declared.

While the agency has responsibility for regulating traffic in both directions, the designs of U.S. ports of entry on the Mexican border traditionally lend themselves more effectively to inspections of U.S.-bound cars and pedestrians, said Armando Goncalvez, CBP program manager for trade in the agency's Tucson office.

And in any case, CBP lacks both the staffing and resources to inspect all southbound vehicle, around the clock.

But CBP can and does search Mexico-destined traffic on a random basis at all border crossings, San Luis, Ariz., and Andrade, Calif., included, agency officials say.

"CBP has always conducted outbound operations," Goncalvez said. "We have basically the same authority to inspect outgoing as ingoing."

Flores concedes the outbound inspections "became more focused" following the Obama-Calderon meeting.

In recent months, CBP has been able to do more and more effective random searches of southbound vehicles, thanks to additional personnel and resources having been dedicated to that task, said Goncalvez.

For example, CBP officers can use mobile X-ray equipment to do quick scans of passing vehicles without causing long backups of Mexico-bound traffic on the U.S. side, he said.

Neither Flores nor Goncalvez could provide detailed statistics on the volume of southbound weapons and cash seized at the Yuma-area ports, although they said smuggling is a trend seen here as elsewhere along the nearly 2,000-mile border.

"Is San Luis more active than other areas?" Goncalvez asked. "I don't think so. But it's certainly as active as other areas."

All along the border in the 2008 fiscal year that ended last Sept. 30, CBP seized 257 weapons, down from 316 weapons the prior year but up from 160 in fiscal 2006, the agency said.

"I would say virtually all the weapons smuggled south are destined for the drug trafficking organizations," said Matthew Allen, special agent-in-charge in Arizona for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. "And they're using them, frankly, to attack Mexican government institutions."

ICE's duties include gathering intelligence to help CBP stop smuggling attempts as well as doing follow-up investigations into the origins and destinations of cash and guns CBP does seize.

In years past, many of the southbound weapons that were seized were handguns, often purchased in the United States by Mexican police officers who needed duty weapons, Allen said. Now, he said, a growing percentage of seized guns are military-style weapons, prized by drug traffickers because they can churn out a high volume of fire.

"We're seeing a variety of weapons," Flores said. "We're seeing more handguns rather than the assault weapons, in general."

"It all depends," added Goncalvez. "Sometimes you'll seize hunting rifles - they're still illegal" to bring unpermitted into Mexico, even if they're not the stereotypical drug trafficker's gun.

"We do get a lot of automatic weapons, the ones that do indicate they're going to drug smuggling organizations," Goncalvez said.

In fiscal 2008, CBP seized a total of $12.5 million in undeclared currency on its way south, down from $13.7 million in fiscal 2007 and $14.4 million in fiscal 2006.

The "vast majority" of the seized money represented the earnings from drug and alien smuggling into the United States, and was on its way to Mexico-based smuggling operations at the time if was stopped at the border, Allen said.

But while CBP is stopping southbound stacks of cash, a loophole in federal regulations is allowing money launderers to skirt enforcement by loading large sums of money onto prepaid cash cards in the United States and then unloading them with the help of cooperating merchants in Mexico, Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard said during a recent visit to Yuma.

"It's something we're aware of and taking a look at, to see what the appropriate course of action is," CBP spokesman Brian Levin in Tucson said of the cards.

Along with intercepting weapons and currency at the border, CBP makes as a priority stopping fugitives trying to prosecution in the United States, Goncalvez said, adding CBP often partners with local law enforcement agencies in outbound vehicle searches aimed at catching fleeing suspects.

http://www.yumasun.com/articles/cbp-527 ... order.html