Customs officials cracking down on
illegal stateside shipments from Europe
By Marni McEntee,
Kaiserslautern Bureau
| International
mailing regulations ...The U.S. Postal Service prohibits mailing of
certain items. The U.S. Customs office also regulates what can be mailed internationally.
Some of the restricted/prohibited
items:
- Meat products, all canned meats and
certain soup mixes or tortellini containing meat
- Fresh fruits and vegetables
- Certain domesticated and wild
animals
- Products made from endangered
species, such as ivory
- Narcotics
- Certain weapons
- Alcohol, including alcohol-filled
candies.
The penalties for attempting to
send restricted or prohibited merchandise into the United States vary according to which
law is violated and, in some cases, can be severe. Typical fines are in the $100 range;
criminal action for deliberate smuggling can lead to a $5,000 fine and one year in prison.
For more information, look up the
U.S. Customs Website "International Mail Imports" at www.customs.gov/travel/internat.htm.
The brochure also is available at customs offices.
Source:
U.S. Postal Service |
KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany — Military members stationed overseas apparently
can’t resist sending a bit of Europe back to the United States.
Unfortunately, many of the delicacies they want to share with family and friends at
home — such as French pate or German wurst — are contraband in the States.
And U.S. Customs officials say they also are seeing an increased amount of illegal
drugs, weapons, hazardous material and government property in the military mail.
Customs officials are cracking down on such illicit shipments by inspecting more
packages mailed from military bases to stateside postal clearinghouses. Ultimately, that
will mean a slowdown in mail service.
"We’ve seen everything from alcohol to firearms to people taking government
equipment and mailing it back home," said senior customs inspector Anye Whyte, based
at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.
"Sometimes it’s as simple as them sending 15 rulers. Sometimes they send
whole cases of things," Whyte said of people sending government property.
Some 177 million pounds of military mail a year comes from Europe.
Officials don’t necessarily think people are sending more contraband items than
before. The Chicago center, however, has recently added a military liaison whose mission
is to track down illegal shipments from overseas posts, Whyte said.
"When we start finding things, we start looking a little harder," said Senior
Master Sgt. Wayne Haugen of the U.S. Air Forces in Europe’s Air Postal Squadron. The
squadron routes the bulk of the military’s airmail from Europe to the United States.
Most worrisome are shipments of foreign meat products, which might contain the spores
of foot-and-mouth disease, a livestock ailment long eradicated in the United States.
Banned fresh fruits and vegetables in packages could harbor pests such as the
Mediterranean fruit fly.
In the military’s post office mail terminals in Europe, postal clerks check
packages only if they have reason to suspect something illicit is inside, Haugen said.
"If you pick up a package and the customs form says two pairs of jeans but the
package goes ‘gurgle, gurgle, gurgle’ and weighs 40 pounds, we’ll check it
out," he said.
The bulk of the mail opened carries illegal shipments of alcohol, he said.
Although military mail rarely gets physically inspected before it is shipped to the
United States, Whyte said 95 percent of the items are X-rayed once they arrive in Chicago.
That’s when the real problems turn up, he said.
"Based on our enforcement, it has been an eye-opening experience," Whyte
said.
The increase in interceptions of illegal items has raised U.S. Customs’ interest
at other foreign entry points in New York, Washington, D.C., and Dallas, according to a
statement issued by U.S. European Command customs officials.
"Violations of customs, agriculture or mail regulation can result in confiscation
of the goods involved and can lead to hefty fines," the statement said.
Fines for shipping such goods range from $100 to $5,000 and one year in prison for
criminal action for deliberate smuggling, the EUCOM Customs statement said.
For example, a military spouse recently mailed some garlic with dirt clumps. The
shipment, from a Kaiserslautern-area military post office to the States, was intercepted.
"Postal officials fined her $650," the statement said.
Other cases have involved people sending items for resale in the United States without
paying the required duty.
One man received a shipment of 400 T-shirts for his local club. Another woman was
caught sending 72 adult sex toys through the mail for resale in the States — a
violation of duty laws.
"We’re not here to break the backs of the local community," Haugen said.
"But using the military mail system is a privilege."
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