Oct

30

ICE Nails Canadians for Exporting Cheese from United States

Posted by at 6:37 pm on October 30, 2012
Category: Agricultural Exports • Criminal Penalties • ICE

cheeseA reader sent me this press release from Immigration and Customs Enforcement:

One officer and a former officer with the Niagara Regional Police Service (NRP), and an associate are in custody in Canada Thursday following an investigation into a cheese smuggling scheme. …

The arrests were announced by James Spero, special agent in charge, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Buffalo, the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) and the NRP. …

Scott Heron, 39, Casey Langelaan, 48, and Bernie Pollino, 44, all of whom reside in Fort Erie, Ontario, have been charged for smuggling goods, evasion of duties and other related charges under Canadian laws. …

The network involved the purchasing of cases of cheese and other food items in the United States and transporting them into Canada without declaring the items or paying duty. Once the products arrived in the country, they were sorted and prepared for distribution to a variety of restaurants in southern Ontario.

Who knew that it was ICE’s job to help Canada put U.S. cheese makers out of business with punitive tariffs on American cheese?

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Copyright © 2012 Clif Burns. All Rights Reserved.
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3 Comments:

Gibson Guitar comes to mind as well. Funny that Canada demands U.S. pharmaceuticals at cut-rate prices, which seems to me would ordinarily result in anti-dumping sanctions were it any other commodity being traded.

Comment by Doug on October 31st, 2012 @ 5:37 am

I smell a rat! Something very cheesy about this one.

Comment by Steve on October 31st, 2012 @ 10:41 am

Customs cooperation is part of NAFTA and almost all free trade agreement, not mention numerous customs cooperation agreement predating NAFTA. Indeed, customs cooperation provisions in FTAs is one of the factors which should favor greater exemptions for partner countries, were in not for the fact that DDTC and DTSA, and even to some extent BIS, are more scared of loosing their turf than protecting national security.

Comment by Hillbilly on October 31st, 2012 @ 1:58 pm