CBP has issued a CSMS message stating that phone service for the CBP Philadelphia Trade Support Team/Client Representative Branch has been restored. The Client Representative phone number remains unchanged as (215) 717-5908. The fax number for the Client Rep Branch has changed to (215)597-8370 until further notice.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection is advising the traveling public that all commercial and passenger vehicles traveling in western North Dakota and southeastern Saskatchewan may be required to use alternate ports of entry due to local road closure. All U.S. ports of entry remain open at this time; however, Canadian Highway 39 is currently closed from Estevan, Saskatchewan to the border at Portal, North Dakota. Commercial and passenger traffic can utilize the 24-hour ports of Dunseith, North Dakota to the east of Portal and Raymond, Montana to the west of Portal as alternate travel routes. (See 07/20/11 news, 11071954, for BP summary of CBP's announcement.)
On July 21, 2011, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced that Sergey Korznikov, a Russian national, was sentenced to six months in prison for his role in a conspiracy to smuggle military equipment, including rifle scopes, magazines for firearms, face shields, and other material out of the U.S. in violation of the Arms Export Control Act (AECA). Mark Komoroski, a co-conspirator, was sentenced in July 2010 to 32 months in prison and ordered to pay a $10,000 fine.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection is announcing that the following individual Customs broker licenses, as well as any and all associated permits, have been cancelled due to the death of the broker:
U.S. Customs and Border Protection is announcing that the following Customs broker licenses, as well as any and all associated permits, are cancelled without prejudice:
A listing of recent antidumping and countervailing duty messages posted to CBP's Web site, along with the case number(s), period covered, and CBP message number, is provided below. these messages are available by searching on the listed CBP message number at http://addcvd.cbp.gov.
CBP has posted the U.S. Border Patrol Weekly Blotter for July 14 - 20, 2011. The Blotter provides information on Border Patrol activities during the specified week.
CBP has issued a CSMS message stating that until further notice, the Philadelphia Client Representatives will be without phone service due to office renovations. For trade participants who are assigned to the Client Reps at the Philadelphia office, please email the Client Reps for all ACE, ABI, AMS, AES and other issues as follows: Eileen.M.Johnson@dhs.gov, James.Stahl@dhs.gov, or Anne.Keller@dhs.gov
On July 20, 2011, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and other agencies announced the launch of the Hampton Roads Border Enforcement Security Task Force (BEST), which is dedicated to security at the Port of Virginia, the third largest port on the East Coast. The Hampton Roads BEST is comprised of officers and agents from 10 federal, state and local agencies — responsible for identifying, interdicting and investigating a wide variety of maritime-related crime including trade fraud, cargo theft, and the illegal smuggling of drugs, persons, currency and weapons smuggling.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has announced that Indianapolis CBP agriculture specialists working at the FedEx express consignment facility have recently found Khapra Beetles within a small plastic bag of barley seeds from India. CBP officers identified a parcel containing personal effects coming from India, which was x-rayed and inspected. As a result, two live immature Khapra Beetles were found within a bag of barley seeds; the bag of barley seeds was destroyed and the remaining shipment containing the personal effects was re-exported back to the shipper in India.