U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents at Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD) have seen it all, from drugs hidden in the back of a television to unregulated sausage disguised in a sealed coffee container. But what happens afterward? Well, the items are taken.
CBP Officer Christopher Brewer explains that since CBP enforces laws from others agencies — over 400 laws from more than 40 different agencies, from the CDC to FDA — there’s a lot to know and keep up on, which is why officers go through 10-12 weeks of training.
According to CBP Officer Christain DeLuca, officers who go into different focus areas receive more advanced training for specialization.
Counterfeit goods are just one of the product categories which officers have to be on the lookout for, and in certain instances, officers might turn to an import specialist to determine the authenticity of a product and what it would be worth if it were genuine, something known as the Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) value.
“They are specifically taught how to look at a product and determine its authenticity, its value, and how it should be like taxed,” Brewer says of import specialists.
In late March, Dulles CBP agents seized 18 counterfeit designer watches from a Pennsylvania traveler coming from Dubai. The watches would be valued at about $250,000 if they were authentic.
This isn’t the first time that counterfeit items have been discovered at the Sterling airport. To name a few more: In April 2019, officers found fake designer hats with an MSRP value of $207,000; in November 2019, $2 million MSRP value in fake designer bags; in 2020, $3 million MSRP value of apparel, from fake Louis Vuitton handbags to Gucci shirts; and in October 2021, more than $1 million MSRP value of 806 counterfeit items packed into 21 checked suitcases (which were also fake).
Brewer says that counterfeit products can be easy to spot and easy to verify in authenticity.
“When they go out to look at those types of products, you can almost tell right away — like a box doesn’t look authentic, or the markings aren’t quite right, or the word ‘Rolex’ can be misspelled or fuzzy on the product,” he says. “So normally, nine times out of 10, it’s almost immediately apparent [that] there’s something wrong with this commodity. And if it’s an authentic product, like a Rolex, there’s always paperwork with it. Those are serial-numbered watches that we can pick up the phone and call Rolex to verify their authenticity.”
CBP reports that they seized over 20,000 counterfeit goods in fiscal year 2021, worth over $2.15 billion if the goods were authentic. Clothing apparel/accessories are the top item category seized. At Dulles, CBP reported $4.92 million MSRP value in intellectual property seizures in 2021, according to Stephen Sapp, the CBP public affairs officer for the mid-Atlantic region.
“Counterfeit consumer goods violate United States intellectual property laws, steals revenue from trademark holders, may potentially harm U.S. consumers, and are never a good thing to pack in your baggage if you are heading to a Customs and Border Protection arrivals inspection,” says Daniel Escobedo, CBP’s area port director for the area port of Washington, DC.
Aside from counterfeit items, there are more notable seizures at Dulles: charred bat bushmeat, currency (which can be seized if it’s over $10,000 and not declared), handguns, fake IDs, and drugs.
DeLuca notes that travelers with seized items are typically just released, except in certain instances. In some cases, like with child pornography, CBP will see if federal prosecution is available or turn to local law enforcement. CBP officers also enforce arrest warrants.
Brewer and DeLuca say that the amount of goods seized at Dulles when compared to other airports is in the middle of the pack, but proportional to the airport’s size.
While super ports might record more in number, it’s more so due to their size — JFK, LAX, and Miami might have more seizures than Dulles, but they also have more passengers and more officers working.
“I would say, if you average everything out, you’re going to see that that average works out evenly, or very close to evenly, for the amount of work that you have to the amount of seizures that you get … it’s all relative to how much you see,” DeLuca says.
There are some crazy things Brewer and DeLuca have seen come through Dulles and ports in general, but drugs usually take the cake for the most outrageous seizure stories.
“To be really just open about it, drug smugglers amaze me. They’re an amazing, crafty people. Some of the most amazing things I’ve seen is … it’ll be a factory-sealed package, you’ll look at it — it looks like it was bought from a store — and then you cut it open and concealed inside of some food product, you’ll find drugs. They have no limits to the things that they do,” says DeLuca. “It looks legitimate, and it’s not.”
Brewer says the agricultural specialists sees drugs too, just hidden in food and plants.
“Food is a very common way to try to smuggle in drugs. So they’ll take bananas — and they’ll leave some legit ones around — and they’ve literally pulled the banana out, and re-inserted drugs in there and then carefully glued the peel together to make it look like it’s a banana again,” he says. “You name it, they’ve tried it as a smuggling technique here and we’ve come across it. It is truly amazing.”
It’s not necessarily that CBP officers want to seize your items, though. Brewer says the main thing is that they want to educate travelers on customs rules, since there are people who are genuinely unaware of certain restrictions. For DeLuca, he notes that officers can usually tell when intentions aren’t so pure.
“So, if the person really tries to hide something and tries to cover it up, I would say that their motivation was with bad intentions. But if the person just thinks that it’s something normal? It’s a cultural item, but it’s just prohibited here — well, maybe they just weren’t aware,” he says.
Sometimes, certain items are allowed, but only in specific quantities. Brewer says travelers to declare their items to avoid the penalty fees, which can be hundreds of dollars.
“When it comes to agriculture, you got to declare everything. We’ll tell you if you can keep it or not, but when you declare it, you avoid paying a civil penalty … That way, you’re always above board. You won’t face any consequences. I mean, it’s painful when … one of my guys is writing a $300 penalty because someone didn’t want to declare their apple in their bag,” he says.
Brewer notes that you can petition to get certain items back, though there’s no guarantee that that will actually happen.
“In all cases, they’re not walking out the door with it. It depends on what it is, they may have an opportunity to petition for it back. So they may incur both a penalty and it’d be seized, and then they can petition for it back and possibly ask for relief on the penalty side of it too,” he says.
In all instances, Brewer says it’s better to know before you go by checking what is allowed and what’s prohibited on the CBP travel website.
For more stories like this, subscribe to our Local News newsletter.
