Customs Enforcement Collaboration Increasing With New Task Force in Detroit
The Department of Homeland Security is pouring more resources into export enforcement with a new task force headquartered in Detroit, a CBP official said. Officials are calling the enforcement body a Global Trade Task Force: a DHS-led effort with cooperation from several other customs agencies, including CBP and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The task force, which launched in February, will use resources from multiple customs agencies to further tighten vulnerabilities in the commerce stream, said CBP Director of Field Operations Christopher Perry. “Each agency has unique capabilities and authorities,” Perry said. “By leveraging these capabilities, it helps us act as force multiplier.”
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Perry said the task force will target three areas: health and safety, trade crime and counterproliferation. That includes tracking and seizing counterfeit goods and stopping financially motivated schemes that would harm businesses, Perry said. “It all goes back to what our primary mission is -- to keep dangerous goods” out of the commerce stream, he said. Perry pointed to the task force’s first operation, which he called “incredibly successful”: the seizure of 170 grams of suspected fentanyl, as well as counterfeit prescription drugs, iPhones and airbags.
The task force operates with “investigative, interdiction, regulatory and licensing capabilities” from multiple agencies, CBP said in a press release. Prosecutions resulting from seizures may be handled either by CBP or the Department of Justice, Perry said, “depending on the nature of the violation.” But he said Justice would be “primarily responsible beyond seizure.”
Although the task force is only located in Detroit and Perry said there are no immediate plans for expansion, other cities have been interested. In the press release, a Customs official said the task force “could serve as a national model for related investigations across the agency” and possibly further. “Right now it’s centered in Detroit,” Perry said. “But it doesn’t mean the tentacles couldn’t reach out and expand.”