Brown, Dale - Independent 02 (52 page)

 
          
Not
long ago, inspecting a freighter like this would be a nightmare. Perishable
cargos needed immediate attention—they couldn’t afford to let these shipments sit
around on the hot, steamy docks awaiting the next CET team—and the Customs
inspectors always had to be careful going through fragile cargo like personal
effects, pottery, or glassware. It was risky sending a young kid with a two-ton
forklift through a container with two thousand glass bottles—very often,
Customs would end up buying thousands of pounds of accidentally destroyed goods
on top of the items that were routinely destroyed during most inspections.
 
          
But
this type of shipment needed the attention—it fairly cried out for an
inspection. There was something about it, something that spelled strike. Bolan
and the other CET members called it “getting a hard-on,” when a shipment or
freighter just
seemed
to be suspect.
Of course, having ports of call in
Peru
,
Colombia
, and
Panama-
three major cocaine production and
distribution nations—only fed those suspicions. Bolan was getting a raging
hard-on about the
Maria Star.

          
 
He picked up the phone and dialed the
harbormaster of the Port of San Diego, a Greek-born bear of a man named
Danerkouros. “Hello, Inspector Bolan for Mr. Danerkouros ... Hello, sir,
Inspector Bolan. We’ve got a manifest on the
Maria Star Kelly
due in this morning . . . yes, sir, that s the one
. . . you’ve read my mind, Mr. Danerkouros. Dock it at the ‘carnival’ for us,
please ... I don’t know when we 11 be done, sir. My manifest shows one hundred
and eight containers altogether, which is a lot, and I have no count on how
many double-enders they have. I can give you a more accurate estimate about an
hour after the
Maria
pulls in . . .
thank you, sir, I appreciate it... no, I don’t know which one will be next.
I’ll let you know as soon as I do ... thanks again.” Bolan then finished his
coffee, made a few phone calls to his family and to his headquarters downtown,
hit the head, then headed for his unit’s small computer center, where he picked
up the intelligence report printouts on the
Maria
Star
that had been compiled for him as soon as the Form 1302 had been
received by the shipping company. One last cup of coffee, a check of his
portable phone, and Bolan headed out the door towards the docks and the area
known as the “carnival.”
 
          
The "carnival" was a
specialized area of the port that had been created only a few months earlier,
as a result of the same funding measures that created the Border Security
Force. It had been argued that the Hammerheads would not be involved with more
routine narcotics interdiction jobs such as inspecting freighters and aircraft once
they arrived at American ports of entry, so the Gustoms Service was provided
with much more sophisticated and powerful tools for carrying out inspections of
large seaborne cargo shipments such as this. These GAI, or Gargo Automated
Inspection systems were installed at several large American ports of entry in
the south to allow inspectors to quickly and accurately inspect an entire
freighter's cargo in just a matter of hours. Located inside a tall chain-link
security fence, the chambers, buildings, container rails, docks, cranes, slides,
and transporter arms reminded someone of a cheap amusement park; hence the
nickname "carnival"—except at a hundred million dollars a copy, this
amusement park was definitely not cheap.

 
          
The
place was empty at the moment; the last ship had unloaded its cargo and had
been inspected earlier in the day. Bolan went to the operations center at the
CAI and met with the inspection team chief, Ed Bartolo. The inspection team
chief of each eight-hour shift usually ran all three divisions at the CAI: the
inspection, warehouse, and security divisions. “We got another one coming in
soon, Ed,” Bolan told the shift chief. “The
Maria
Star,
the South American milk run I told you about.”

 
          
Bartolo
nodded and retrieved his copy of the customs declaration form while stuffing
the last of his lunch into his mouth. “Yeah,” Bartolo said after studying the
Form 1302, except his reply sounded more like a muffled “ughk.” “Figured you’d
be sending this one through the carnival. Well, the boys are ready.”

 
          
They
found the warehouse and inspection crews in the dining hall eating lunch, so
Bolan briefed them as they ate: “We got a good one for you this afternoon, boys
and girls,” he began.
‘Maria Star,
American registry, six hundred footer. One hundred and eight containers total,
fifty-two 20-footers and fifty-six 40-footers. Thirty refrigerated. No count on
double-enders.”

 
          
Bolan
opened the intelligence printout on the freighter: “This vessel was involved
with a very small marijuana smuggling incident three years ago on a run to
New Orleans
,” he said. “The company and master were not
charged, although they did get a hefty fine. No other reports on the company,
this vessel, or the master; in general, U.S.-registered vessels are not major
targets for smugglers. They know our security is a little tighter and our
foreign officials a lot less accessible. This vessel last underwent a complete
top-down compartments search nine months ago and a complete cargo inspection
six months ago, without the carnival of course, with no hits recorded.

 
          
“Let’s
go over its cargo and our actions. Starting from the top of the heap: Empty
container goes to ultrasound mapping; see if we have this container’s
electronic profile on file in the computer, but map it anyway for a
cross-check. Household goods, pottery, and bamboo furniture can go through the
sniffer chamber; I have a signed statement from the owners of the military
household goods saying that there are no pressurized bottles inside. Fresh
fruit have to be hand-checked; we have honey dew melons, tomatoes, and bananas.
Watch for tarantulas, guys and gals.” A humorless moan went up from the
audience; the hairy spiders were sometimes present in even the best-inspected
boxes of fruit, and although they were not deadly and little more than a nuisance,
they were not welcome guests.

 
          
“Electronics
goods can go through the sniffer,” Bolan continued. "Melons . . . more
melons . . . ceramic bricks go through the sniffer, but I want each container
random checked if they are not doubledoored.” Double-doored containers had
doors at each end, which facilitated inspecting a container. Although shippers
were not required to have them, those that did were usually given preferential
treatment by Customs, and those who did not retrofit their containers with extra
doors usually attracted attention. It was much easier to hide contraband in the
old-style containers with a single set of doors, which were exactly the ones
that Customs kept an eye out for.

 
          
“Coffee—lots
of coffee,” Bolan went on. There were a few “oohs” and aahhs” from the
inspection force—there was nothing in the world like the smell of a forty loot
container full of Colombian coffee beans, even from those few who didn’t drink
coffee. “These can go through the sniffer. We have . . .” Bolan made a quick
count of the containers that held sacks of coffee beans, “... twenty-four
containers from
Colombia
with coffee beans. I want at least six of
these hand- inspected after they come out of the sniffer.

 
          
“What
else? Balsa wood can go in the sniffer. Cigarettes in the sniffer. More coffee
beans,
Ecuador
—sniffer. Frozen shrimp, ten containers: sorry, boys, hand inspect. It
says 18 degrees Celsius, so you’ll need parkas and mittens.” More displeased
moaning. “Drums of banana puree can get ultrasound. Household effects: aha. A
special handling request.” Bolan nodded thoughtfully. Special handling requests
were common with dependents of foreign diplomats returning home; they usually
brought back expensive items that they wanted protected from damage.

 
          
“What
are you going to do, boss?” Bartolo asked.

 
          
Bolan
looked at the “special handling” request again, then shook his head. “I haven’t
done a hand inspection in a long time,” he said. “I’ll take this one.”

 
          
That
seemed to please a lot of the inspectors in the room—Bolan got a lot of
approving nods and sly smiles, happy that their boss treated the big-shot
diplomats—and himself—like everyone else. “Well, I’ll help out to make sure you
do it right, then, sir,” Bartolo offered.

 
          
“I
would’ve insisted on it,” Bolan said with a smile. He continued down the list,
assigning each container to a particular area or system in the CAI, then read
off a list of Customs briefing notes compiled from reports from around the
country, advising inspectors on things to look out for or things that other
inspectors had found. He also read off the latest intelligence summaries,
outlining any information received by the FBI, DEA, or Border Security on drug
shipments or activity.

 
          
“We’ve
received an alert on household goods again,” Bolan read off. “Seems we get one
of these every other month, but it’s still a popular way to smuggle in small
quantities. DEA says to watch out for military and government household goods
shipments in particular, since packing jobs for government employees overseas
are now being contracted to local moving companies, often the lowest bidders.
This means that any smuggling operation can front itself as a moving company
and load a shipment down with product relatively easy, during several stages of
the moving process. Stay on your toes. The sniffer should catch most jobs, but
as we’ve learned, it isn’t foolproof.

 
          
“We’ve
received a status briefing from the FBI on narcotics sales nationwide: they’re
supposed to be down ten percent from this time last year, with cocaine prices
now averaging twenty-three thousand dollars a kilo for street grade. That’s
almost a hundred percent more than last year.”

 
          
“This
almost sounds like a commodities report on the Financial News Network,”
somebody quipped.

 
          
“Well,
here’s the difference,
Duncan
,” Bolan told him. “The FBI says they blame rising cocaine prices for
increases in violent urban crime, gang-related violence, and a rise in the
felony crime rate. Stick that up your portfolio. This FBI report is supposed to
highlight the enormous tension these price increases are causing, and the turf
wars and crime it’s causing. The pressure to import a kilo of coke is really
getting bad. It’s also supposed to highlight the security question, guys and
girls—the bad guys will be pulling out the stops to get their product. They
haven’t called for increased security measures yet, but they might be
implementing tighter restrictions and added security soon. That line about a
commodities report might be a good analogy,
Duncan
—the higher the price of street drugs rise,
the greater the profit margin becomes and the more players want to get into the
action. When the price gets really high and the quantity goes down, things
really might get tense.

 
          
“Along
with that FBI report, we’re also getting an alert from Border Security about
increased activity from aircraft trying to break through the air cordons. It’s
hard to believe, children, but smugglers are still trying to go right through
the cordons instead of around them. Activity is picking up along the
Mexico
border and in the southwest, and Border
Security predicts that our area will become the new
Caribbean
very soon. Border Security isn’t planning
on expanding into the southwest for a few years, so the bad boys will take
advantage of a relative gap in offensive border coverage.” He closed the
briefing folders and set them down on a table. “Okay. Questions?” No reply.
“Everyone fat and happy? Good. The
Maria
will
be in shortly, so let’s get to work.”

 
          
Processing
an incoming freighter, even a medium-sized one like the
Maria Star,
was a monstrous task for the Customs Service. Because
the
Maria
was making its first port
call in the
United States
, the crew had to process through the port
of entry before anything else for passport, baggage, and records checks. The
ship’s records would be checked, and the Coast Guard would conduct a safety
inspection before the ship would be allowed to navigate American waters.
Bolan’s Contraband Enforcement Team was responsible for inspecting the vessel
and its cargo for illegally or undeclared goods being brought into the
United States
. As soon as the in-processing and standard
port of entry inspections were finished, a huge overhead rolling crane was
wheeled into position and the Cargo Automated Inspection process began.