Customs is always watching, smugglers warned
Published:Saturday | February 12, 2022 | 12:06 AMChristopher Serju/Senior Gleaner Writer
The Jamaica Customs Agency (JCA) is always watching.
That is the message to would-be smugglers from Kingsley Henry, the agency’s director of cargo imaging and physical security management.
Speaking with The Gleaner at the JCA Employees’ Awards and Recognition Ceremony on Thursday at the JCA’s downtown Kingston corporate offices, Henry warned that the agency was building out its capacity to better track and detect contraband.
“Customs is relying more on technology,” Henry disclosed, adding that it had invested in developing a master plan to further modernise its tracking and image interpretation systems, among others.
Integrating its scanning system with its Automatic System for Customs Data (ASYCUDA) clearance system is now the priority.
“We want a situation where our screeners are relying on paper manifests but are able to see the image on the screen and see a corresponding electronic manifest and the declaration that the customer has submitted. A feature that we also want to work on in the new system is one where our image interpretation is taking place in the maritime port, away from the scanning machines,” he added. “So we would have a control centre where you scan and the images are relayed to a remote location where the image interpretation can be done. Those are some of the improvements that we have been working on in recent years.”
In addition to its highly publicised role on the ports and at airports, the JCA has also been racking up many interceptions of ganja and other contraband sent through the postal service.
“They are small seizures, but smugglers try all the time to use ingenious ways to try and beat the system. You would be surprised at the number of seizures that we have made through the post. These things don’t make the news, probably because it’s routine, happens every day. At the airports, it’s the same thing,” said Henry.
If you are someone who buys regularly from online stores, your transactions could also catch the attention of Customs. Most passengers coming through the customs or baggage halls are randomly picked out for searches, but some are flagged based on risk and intelligence assessments.
For clients receiving barrels, boxes and the like, where the contents are usually listed as grocery items, these are subject to serious screening, long before they are even made aware that these have arrived in the island, according to Henry.
“We have these machines all over at the terminals and they scan the containers coming on to the terminals and [going] out of the terminals. We also have them in the warehouses where people go to collect their barrels and boxes and stuff. They get that kind of screening before it gets to you as the importer and we do the same thing at the post offices.
“So, when you get your mail or your parcel through the post office, it would already have been screened through all these machines by our team.”
Maritime cargo also comes under the scrutiny of Customs, which has the equipment to do the necessary screening for nuclear or radioactive material, with Henry pointing out that the JCA is equipped with the necessary equipment and personnel to track and screen everything coming in or going out of the official ports.
On Thursday, some 152 individual and five group awards were presented.
Manager of the Data Entry Unit in Kingston, Damean Beckford, was named Employee of the Year for the second straight year.
Among those recognised for long service were Sonia Duncan (40 years), Leonard Pitt (33 years), and Ian Johnson (32 years).
Commissioner of Customs and JCA Chief Executive Officer Velma Ricketts Walker presented the awards and spoke on gains made in the industry in keeping with Customs Week 2022, which was observed under the theme ‘Scaling up Digital Transformation by Embracing a Data Culture and Building a Data Ecosystem’.