Customs and Border Protection

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Now Patrolling the Mexico Border: Drones

Predators have monitored nearly half of border since 2013

(Newser) - Predator drones guard nearly half the US-Mexico border where camera towers, ground sensors, agents, and fences are absent. Able to patrol remote areas like mountains and canyons, the drones capture high-resolution footage of an area every three days, the AP reports in an exclusive. Analysts then check the videos using...

Alleged Meth Smuggler Chooses Wrong Parking Lot

Sylvia Mashiah busted with 27 pounds of meth after parking in federal 'search' lot

(Newser) - You just had one job, suspected drug smuggler: to get across the US-Mexico border with 27 pounds of meth. And technically, Sylvia Mashiah allegedly did that—until she screwed it all up, according to Customs and Border Protection agents. The 33-year-old California woman allegedly drove up to the Otay Mesa...

Border Officers Have Killed 46, Face No Consequences: Report

Customs and Border Protection hasn't released officers' names

(Newser) - US border officers and agents have killed dozens of people, including Americans, since 2004, but it appears they haven't faced any discipline for their actions, the Arizona Republic reports. Customs and Border Protection's acting internal affairs head has told journalists he doesn't know of any terminations or...

Mom of Mexican Teen Killed by Border Patrol Sues

16-year-old was shot from across border

(Newser) - The mother of a Mexican teen shot at least eight times in the back by US Border Patrol agents firing over the border is going to court to find out who killed her son. Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez, 16, was shot by at least one agent in October 2012 as...

Dozens of Giant Snails Stopped at LAX

Invasive species was labeled as food

(Newser) - A slow-moving Nigerian delicacy was stopped at Los Angeles International Airport when 67 giant land snails were discovered packed in picnic baskets, authorities said yesterday. The live African snails—which can grow to be 8 inches long, 5 inches wide, and live to be 10 years old—arrived with paperwork...

Feds Haul in $2M of Pot Dumped in Ocean

Smuggling boats took off for Mexico once spotted

(Newser) - Federal officials say nearly $2 million worth of marijuana that was tossed into the ocean from two suspected smuggling boats has been recovered about 160 miles off the coast of San Diego. A spokesman for US Customs and Border Protection tells the Union-Tribune that more than 130 bales of pot,...

Agencies Borrowing Drones More Than We Thought

Customs and Border Protection has loaned them out almost 700 times

(Newser) - Domestic law enforcement agencies have flown a lot more drone missions than they let on, according to newly uncovered data. Customs and Border Patrol lent out drones from its fleet for almost 700 surveillance missions from 2010 to 2012, the agency has revealed, in response to Freedom of Information Act...

Woman Gets $5K Bill After Cavity Searches for Drugs

Those searches turned up no sign of drugs, by the way

(Newser) - A 54-year-old New Mexico woman is suing US customs and a hospital after an escalating series of drug searches that took six hours and yielded no sign of drugs—only a $5,000 hospital bill for her trouble. Some details, as rounded up by Raw Story , Reason , and the AP...

US Denies Woman Entry Over Her Depression

Toronto vacationer was turned back at Pearson airport

(Newser) - So much for that $6,000 vacation: A Canadian woman was denied entry into the US this week due to her history of mental illness, the CBC reports. Ellen Richardson had planned to fly to New York and from there go on a 10-day cruise, but US customs officials at...

Border Agents Abusive: Suits
 Border Agents Abusive: Suits 

Border Agents Abusive: Suits

Lawyers criticize 'culture of impunity' at Customs and Border Protection

(Newser) - US border agents are being accused of a series of abuses around the country, in what immigration advocates are calling a "culture of impunity" at Customs and Border Protection, reports the USA Today . The 10 plaintiffs in the lawsuits range from a 4-year-old New York girl who was prohibited...

Feds Make Biggest Pot Bust in History

$12M worth of marijuana confiscated on Mexican border

(Newser) - The good news: US border agents have seized some 14,151 pounds of marijuana—thought to be the biggest seizure in history, the Los Angeles Times reports. The humorously depressing news: The 26-year-old man busted with the pot was betting he could just drive some 600 bales of it across...

Border Agents Seize 20K Fake Designer Shoes

Christian Louboutin clones might have fetched $18M on black market

(Newser) - Beware of fake fancy footwear. US customs agents seized about 20,000 pairs of counterfeit Christian Louboutin shoes at the Los Angeles/Long Beach seaport. The shoes came in on a cargo ship from China, and they could have fetched upward of $18 million on the black market, reports ABC News...

Newest Border Agent: a Blimp?
 Newest Border Agent: a Blimp? 

Newest Border Agent: a Blimp?

Military seeks new uses for Afghanistan equipment

(Newser) - America's new border agents could be … blimps. The US military is testing a 72-foot unmanned blimp, currently used to locate insurgents in Afghanistan and referred to as "the floating eye," to see if it could also be used to spot illegal border-crossers. If it works, dozens...

Meet the Virtual Customs Agent

Avatar will expedite pre-approved travelers crossing the border

(Newser) - It may seem like something out of Minority Report, but the US Customs and Border Patrol's newest agent is expected to make life easier for those who regularly cross the border between Nogales, Arizona, and Mexico. The nameless agent is a computer avatar, but he's bilingual, able to...

Foreign Airports Now Home to ... US Screeners

US officers advise, work at several international airports

(Newser) - The extremely long arm of the US law is reaching across oceans. US officials are boosting security checks at foreign airports, reports the New York Times . Passengers at Ireland's Shannon airport are already screened for explosives and cleared to enter the US by American Customs and Border Protection officers...

Customs Finds Record 180 Heroin Pellets in Woman

TSA noticed tight stomach during pat-down

(Newser) - A woman arrested at Washington's Dulles International Airport has set a record that nobody who values their life would attempt to beat, customs officials say. The 52-year-old woman had swallowed 180 pellets of heroin, containing nearly five pounds of the drug, reports the Los Angeles Times . The woman was...

Feds: Your iPad Won't Get You Across the Border

... Despite claims of Canadian driver

(Newser) - Note to US-Canadian travelers: Bring the passport, skip the iPad. A Canadian man who forgot his actual passport says he showed a scanned copy of it to a border agent on his iPad and was allowed entry. Not so, a US Customs spokeswoman tells CTV . She says Montreal resident Martin...

Canadian Uses iPad Scan to Cross Into US

He forgot his passport but remembered his scanned copy

(Newser) - In what looks to be a first, a Canadian traveler got across the US border via iPad. It wasn't intentional: Montreal resident Martin Reisch realized he forgot his passport en route but remembered he had a scanned copy on his Apple gadget, reports the Canadian Press . He handed over...

Porsche Stolen in 1988 Seized at Port

Customs agents in Los Angeles find 930 Turbo worth $70,000

(Newser) - US Customs agents in Los Angeles cracked a 23-year-old case when they seized a Porsche 930 Turbo on its way to being shipped to the Netherlands. The sports car had been reported stolen—in 1988. The 1976 red Porsche eluded authorities for more than two decades, reports the Los Angeles ...

Cops: Airport Smuggler Hid Cocaine in ... Clam Shells

Customs officials call case one of the oddest they've seen

(Newser) - Finding a pearl inside a clam is rare, but finding a bag of cocaine is rarer. Just ask Dulles International Airport customs officials who arrested a Central American man trying to enter the US with 15 bags of cocaine stashed in shells that had been opened, stuffed, and glued back...

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