Smuggler Catcher

By Mr. Zoran Knezev

This book Smuggler Catcher details my career with US Customs
later, after 9/11 renamed to US Customs and border Protection. Every
word in the books is true and correct. Together with my highly successful
work I had to fi ght for the promotions. This due to the fact that I was still
a foreigner in the eyes of some of my supervisors who simply refused
to accepts me as one of their own.The book contains a number of
original photographs which show some of my successful operations. I
estimate that during my work for the US Government we have seized
over twenty million dollars of Dirty Money.
I am now happily retired and enjoying the benefi ts given to me.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Dec 30, 2013
• ISBN: 9781479767595

Mr. Zoran Knezev

I was born in Yugoslavia, city of Belgrade. Left former Yugoslavia after realizing that there was no future for me in that Communist country. Spent one year in England working in a solicitors offi ce.In Cambridge, England I met professor Emerson who provided and sponsorship for my entry as a student in the USA. Completed Bachelors degree at the University of Ill, Champaign-Urbana. Later, after merrying my wife Nevenka I completed studies for the Masters degree at the University of Chicago,. Started working for the US Government in 1963. Retired in 2011. Mostly worked as an inspector for US Customs Service and Chief Inspector of CBP following two promotions. Have received more awards and recognitions than anyone in the US. Authored following books: Nazi Death Camp Mauthauzen, Western Powers and Yugoslavia in WWII and my Autobiography From Belgrade to Chicago.

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Copyright © 2013 by Mr. Zoran Knezev.

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Rev. date: 12/27/2013

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CONTENTS

1. How I Decided to Become a Customs Inspector

2. I Was Now a Customs Inspector, 1965

3. Customs Inspector School in Baltimore

4. I Was Now the Smuggler Catcher

5. Operation Intercept

6. The Greatest Merchandise Seizure: I Was on a Roll

7. The First Chicago Enforcement Team

8. GS 11 Senior Inspector at O’Hare

9. Seizures at the IAB International Arrivals Terminal 1 (1970-1973)

10. My First Narcotic Cargo Seizures

11. Promotion to GS 11 Supervisor

12. The Famous O’Hare Eight

13. Heroin in Duty-Free Cigarette Packs

14. Promotion to GS 12 Supervisor

15. Senior Supervisory Inspector Seminar in D.C., 1987

16. A Letter to the White House

17. The First O’Hare Contraband Enforcement Team, 1986

18. Chief Inspector Resigns, First Major Scandal

19. Buckstop Operation, Miami, Florida

20. The Detection of Narcotics in Cargo, 1987

21. The First Narcotic Seizure by My Team

22. The Second O’Hare Contraband Enforcement Team, 1987

23. CET Training in Glynco

24. An Incident with Currency and La Francais Restaurant Owner

25. My Three Years as Terminal 4 Administrative Supervisor and Deputy Chief, 1990

26. Meeting and Processing Important People—Public Relations

27. Processing Complaint Letters

28. Problems with the District Director

29. Supervisor, Contraband Enforcement Team, 1993-1995

30. The New CET Chief

31. Trip to Fort Worth, Dallas

32. Landed Quantity Verifications

33. The Incident with Mr. Ahmad

34. Another Customs Scandal: The Second Chief Is Forced to Retire

35. The End of My Lawsuit in 1995

36. Death of the Chicago CET

37. Terminal 5 Passenger Processing, 1996

38. Customs Reorganization

39. A Small Narcotic Seizure

40. Exodus Team in Action, New Changes

41. Reorganization of the Port of Chicago

42. The Customs Reorganization in Chicago

43. The End of My Adversary, It Appeared

44. New Buckstop Team and JFK Training

45. FBI Shoot and Barbeque

46. 1998 Trip to San Diego on Interviewing and on to Tijuana

47. 1998 Antiterrorist Training in Glynco

48. 1998 Currency Training in JFK

49. The 1998 Process Owners Conference in Atlanta

50. The Blue Eagle Award Ceremony

51. Currency Seizures Continue

52. The Customs (Now CBP) Dog Program

53. The Art of Smuggling

54. Smuggling by Professionals

55. Semiprofessional Smuggling

56. Use of False-Compartment Suitcases, Garment Bags and Briefcases, and Other Objects of Concealment

57. Merchandise Smuggling

58. Currency Smuggling

59. Some of the More Interesting Currency Seizures: A Review

60. Terrorist-Related Currency Seizures

61. Description of Additional Major Seizures

62. Commissioner’s Award in Washington, D.C.

63. How I Received a Promotion in 2002 and Its Consequences

64. My First Foreign Official Travel

65. The International Customs Seminar in D.C.

66. Visit to Detroit

67. My Second Trip to Yugoslavia

68. The Visit to Spain and Spanish Customs

69. El Zambra

70. My Visit to Portugal and Their Customs Service

71. My Private Trip to Yugoslavia with Official Consequences

72. US Customs after September 11, 2001

73. The Major Seizure on Royal Jordanian Airlines: Its Impact and Repercussions

74. My Promotion in March 2002

75. Andrew’s Retirement: A Major Setback and My Transfer to Terminal 5

76. The General Failure of the Customs and Border Protection Leadership

77. The Enforcement Activity at O’Hare: New Changes and Problems, Summer 2011

78. The General Failure of Enforcement in the Port of Chicago

79. The Irresponsible Growth of Federal Bureaucracy within Customs and Border Protection

80. The Glory Belongs to Them

81. The Problems Associated with the War on Terrorism

82. New Administration, 2008-2011

83. My Decision to Retire

Scan2.jpg30%20Zoran%20outside%20of%20Terminal%201.jpg

Zoran outside of Terminal 1

41%20Zoran%20lecturing%20on%20customs%20procedures.jpg

Zoran lecturing on customs procedures

12%20Zoran%20observing%20passengers%20processing.jpeg

Zoran observing passengers processing

How I Decided to Become a Customs Inspector

In 1962 I received an MA degree from the University of Chicago. At the time, I did not have any chosen profession and did not really know much about the American way of life and how to become successful in any occupation. The University of Chicago employment counselor offered me a possibility of employment with several large companies in New York. One of the job interviews I had was with the chief sales manager of Campbell Soup in this area. He offered me a training development position in sales in New York. When my wife heard about this opportunity, she derided me for wanting to become a soup salesman with a master’s degree.

Another opportunity was with the top advertising company Walter J. Thompson, but with the initial training also in New York, my wife was opposed again. The employment counselor then suggested a federal government job. The same year, I passed the Federal Entrance Examination and was placed on a high list of eligibles. Several offers came, including an offer to work for the US Department of Labor. It seemed an interesting type of work at first. Then as I started working, I found out that most of the work consisted of sitting behind a desk and writing reports of one kind or another with hardly any direction or instruction. Almost all of the other personnel were much older. They showed no interest in me or in what I was doing. I then decided that this type of sedentary work would eventually kill me, and I would begin to look as the other employees—wrinkled, bored, and without any initiative. The head of the department called me in and, noticing my dissatisfaction, advised me that he did not feel that this was the type of work I should continue to pursue. Looking back at this situation, I feel grateful that I did not stay with the US Department of Labor. It was during this period that my wife and I saw a movie with Danny Kay in which he played a French customs inspector. I believe the title was The Inspector General. My wife said, This is what you should be doing. Why do you not try to get a job like this?

A day or two later, I found in the telephone directory a telephone number of US Customs in Chicago. In those days, in 1963 it was called the Bureau of Customs, one of the branches of the Department of Treasury. I called up their Personnel Department and told the lady who answered the phone that I was interested in getting a job with Customs and that this type of work sounded very exciting to me. The nice lady who talked to me was Gertrude Poch, the name I will always remember. She had a very pleasant personality and was well suited for her position. She died long ago after being retired for some time. Mrs. Poch told me to come in and fill out an application and asked me if I knew any foreign language, including Russian, Serbo-Croatian, etc. I answered her that I had training in several foreign languages while in Yugoslavia, including Russian, and that I was fluent in Serbo-Croatian. Mrs. Poch then told me to come and see her the following week. I came and met her in her office. It turned out she was a sweet little lady in her middle fifties. After talking to her, I was left with a certain amount of hope that perhaps I would get a position with the US Customs in Chicago. I completed the required documents hurriedly and anxiously.

Mrs. Poch informed me that she will contact me within several weeks as it would take a while to process my application. Two weeks later, I was called and asked to come in and was told that I would be getting a position as customs translator at the GS 7 grade, same grade I was in the US Department of Labor. By October 1963, I was sworn in and became an employee of the Bureau of Customs in the port of Chicago. The ceremony took place in the office of the assistant director, Mr. Adams. He was present there together with Chief Inspectors Marty Zandrews and Stanley Pacholski. Both have died since. All three individuals appeared very pleasant and gave me encouragement that I will do fine in my new job.

I reported to work at the main post office across the main Customs building at 610 S. Canal in Chicago. On the third floor of this huge building, Customs was involved in checking foreign mail for dutiable, pornographic, and prohibited items. A small unit named FPU (Foreign Propaganda Unit) was where I was assigned. My supervisor was Ted Lennard, a short balding man of Polish ancestry. He appeared very pleasant and well organized, efficient, successful, and seemed to keep the unit on the right track. Another employee assigned to us from the post office was Vince, a tall, husky man with a reddish face and of Lithuanian origin. He appeared to be unfriendly, moody, possibly an alcoholic.

What did we do throughout every work day? The work consisted of looking at stacks of foreign newspapers and magazines, glancing quickly at Communist propaganda material, and then if the text appeared to be vitriolic and aggressive enough against the United States, we would translate it into English, submit it to Ted for review, and off it went to the appropriate agencies such as the State Department, the CIA, etc. We were never specifically told where it was going but, through gossip, assumed that it was routed to such agencies. Most of the Communist mail arriving was from the Soviet Union, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, and some of it through Canada. This type of mail occasionally came from other countries such as Yugoslavia, China, North Vietnam, and others. Most of the material was addressed to student bodies, the student organizations in different US colleges and universities. This propaganda was arriving unsolicited. The law under which we operated stipulated that if the propaganda was unsolicited and the addressee did not wish to receive it, he could request that it be destroyed. In the future, it would not be delivered to the address given. Some of the Communist bookstores and possible Communists did want to receive this material and made the request known to the US post office that it be delivered to them. We complied with such requests and would send it to them after review. Files with names and addresses were maintained for such purposes. Although the files were supposed to be confidential, I have observed Vince showing them to FBI agents.

With this, I did not have any problem as I have always despised Communists and their sympathizers. We all felt that we were doing something patriotic by keeping tabs on the Communist propaganda and on their outlets in the United States. It was amazing how many individuals in the states were interested in receiving Communist propaganda. The state of California was particularly heavy recipient of such mail.

One of the more pleasant tasks was the examination of the mail containing pornographic photographs, particularly from Sweden, Holland, and West Germany. In those days, pornography showing penetration of organs was prohibited if it came from abroad, although the same was available in the United States in many sex bookstores and sex shops.

We were not told about anyone trying to use the mails to smuggle narcotics. In fact, in those days, I did not have any idea about any narcotics. So if any were being smuggled in, we would not know how they looked or how we would test them to establish that these are narcotics. I still remember the dirty mail sacks that we occasionally dumped on the examination tables in the absence of postal clerks. But the work overall was exciting and we worked with dedication in reporting and monitoring the arrival of ever more Communistic type of propaganda.

Each of the main ports of arrival was designated as FPU. Chicago was designated as FPU II. This stood for the Foreign Propaganda Unit. After a translation of a hard-core type of Communist propaganda article was made, the translation along with the report on the volume and origin of such a propaganda would be then sent to the main FPU in New York. This was the center of coordination of such activities and also the busiest post office FPU in the country.

The Communist countries appeared to have vast resources for printing and delivering such propaganda. Canada was one of the countries through which Communist countries were shipping some of this material back door, so to speak, perhaps hoping that we did not scrutinize the Canadian mail. Some of the mail from Canada originated from Cuba. One of the interesting items we ran into was a booklet of instructions on how to make a Molotov cocktail and other weapons by the guerrillas. Castro was hoping in those days that the U.S. students would get involved in becoming urban guerrillas and use these type of weapons in the large cities.

The law under which we operated was established under President Eisenhower in 1962(?).When I left with my wife on a vacation to Europe in 1965, upon return then-president Kennedy was in office. It did not take long before some Communists in California filed a lawsuit attempting to stop the screening of Communist propaganda. The law under which we were operating was overthrown, and it became illegal to do what we were doing. Our jobs were made obsolete. But US Customs had an excellent policy of offering its employees other positions and reassigning them to other jobs. A short time after our Foreign Propaganda Unit was abolished, we were called in by the district director and offered Customs inspectors positions. These offers were looked upon as awards as they were higher grades and had additional overtime for working extra hours and on Sundays and holidays.

I Was Now a Customs Inspector, 1965

In 1965, within a short period of time after returning from Europe, I was called in to see Mr. Adams who was then the assistant district director. He briefly informed me that I would now be a Customs inspector as my previous job as a translator was abolished. He then turned me over to Stanley Pacholski, in those days the chief inspector for the Outside Division, and asked him where he would send me. Since I was very inexperienced, still with the fairly heavy foreign accent, it was decided to send me to Truck and Rail Section at Midway Airport. The supervisor there was Joe Lessner. He was very friendly and helpful, and under him I started learning how to be a Customs inspector. Much of the work consisted of driving my car to different truck locations and inspect and release bonded freight. This was merchandise shipped in vessels to different ports in the United States and did not clear Customs, was placed under bond by way of inbound documents, Customs Form 7512.

I started working from Midway together with three other inspectors before even receiving any formal training. The work was fairly easy and simple. In the morning before we would start our runs to the truck terminals and warehouses, Supervisor Joe Lessner would match up permits and manifests, CF7512s, assign each one of us several truck terminals, and by 0900 hours, each of us would be on our way in our own vehicles. The mileage would be charged to the government at the end of each month. Joe would show me precisely how to reach various destinations and drew for me maps of different truck terminals. He was very patient and helpful. Despite that as I was an inexperienced driver, occasionally, I got lost and had to ask passersby for directions.

In those days, none of us knew anything about drugs, did not look for them, and if would encounter them, we would not know what they looked like. The news media did not report anything about the war on drugs.

We, Customs inspectors, were taught that our primary mission was collection and protection of revenue. The district director in those days was the collector of Customs and was appointed to such position through political connections, and not by any merit system. His assistant collectors were Civil Service appointees, were exceptionally capable and experienced, and run the service efficiently, always with inadequate staffing. Looking back, there was more pride in the work we did and in the badge we carried than today. Although this was supposed to be a politically oriented system, it appears that today there is more politics within Customs, less capable players, and less pride and prestige.

The work at Midway was preparatory to the full-time assignment at O’Hare, which in those days was supposed to be prestigious and desirable. I still remember driving to some of the warehouses specialized in storing imported intestines used by the Chicago sausage-makers. The odor of intestines immersed in the preserving liquids in large barrels was quite unpleasant. There were other things I did not enjoy such as the crudeness of some of my colleagues. Most of them did not have any formal education and became inspectors through various political connections, nepotism, and promotions from lower noninspectional grades. This fact still did not take away from their abilities and pride of achievement.

There was quite a bit of Polish influence as the Collector Rostankowski was of Polish ancestry. This did not affect me in any manner. I felt that I will prove myself regardless of politics. The opportunity for this arose from the opportunity to work the weekends at O’Hare, and I received double pay for any work in excess of forty hours weekly. We would drive to O’Hare on Saturdays usually at 3:00 pm and work until 9:00 pm or thereabouts. Then we would work almost every Sunday and holiday under the 1911 Overtime Act, which provided for such generous pay.

There, at the airport, I began to learn more about Customs violations, smuggling, and drugs. I knew even in those days that learning and applying myself in such little-known areas of custom enterprise, I would advance myself above the other inspectors. The supervision at O’Hare was also of Polish ancestries.

The word enforcement was neither welcome nor popular in those days.

Customs Inspector School in Baltimore

I was assigned to Customs inspectors school in February 1967. The school was located in the customhouse in Baltimore. We had to walk across what was called in those days the sin strip to reach our place of learning. It was particularly challenging at the end of the day when the nightclubs and strip joints were opening. For the men without wives for prolonged periods of time, these nightspots appeared more and more attractive each passing day. I know a number of cases where an inspector did succumb to temptations.

In the hotel itself, called Emerson, a famous burlesque queen resided. One of our inspectors made some calls to her room, and she complained to the management of the sexual harassment and lewd calls.

Another inspector from Chicago was rolled in the alley after having a bit much to drink. He called his wife and asked her to quickly send him $250, which he urgently needed for parking. We all knew that he left his car parked at O’Hare.

Inspector Miscik, who died some years ago, appeared to be asleep during the classes following heavy nights of drinking in different nightspots. He scored one of the highest tests at the end of the school term.

As in any of the Customs schools and seminars, boredom developed after a while, and we all started studying less and less and drinking more and more. I found it refreshing when one of the instructors started talking about different Customs violations such as Failure to Declare, 19USC1497, and 19USC1592, which was called False Declaration. It really pleased me as I felt we were unprepared to catch professional and amateur smugglers. I felt that we were getting paid to catch violators and assess penalties.

There appeared to be an abundance of smugglers at O’Hare during weekends when I was there working overtime. These first things I learned in school were critical for my development and made an indelible imprint on my interest in smuggling and interdiction of drugs and violators. One of the best teachers was Robert Northwest.

He had retired as a district director in Minneapolis. For the first time, we learned that there are numerous violations that Customs inspectors should be familiar with and try to detect them in the course of their regular work. Until this time, many of us thought that our work consisted of signing release documents, signing documents for the transportation in bond, taking samples of merchandise when requested by commodity specialists, and sometimes checking the container seals. It seemed that the Customs policy had changed and that we became an important tool of the government.

I Was Now the Smuggler Catcher

After successfully completing the Customs inspectors school, I returned to my assignment at Midway Airport fully prepared to take on the smugglers and criminals. This was still not well looked upon by some of the older-echelon inspectors and management. They did not want any complaints and did not want to deal with anyone influential caught smuggling expensive watches and jewelry. Some of our O’Hare supervisors were unhappy particularly with me as they had to handle mitigated penalties and seizures, something they did not know how to handle or simply did not like it. Our basic motto in the middle sixties was collection and protection of revenue, and not interdiction of drugs as is today.

The weekends were spent at O’Hare working overtime while during the week I was still driving around releasing bond shipments at different truck and railroad terminals. The only real excitement took place when we worked at O’Hare inspecting passengers and caught many of them with undeclared merchandise such as jewelry, furs, and gold watches. I still remember the Rolex incident with Rapacz and Rooster involved. He had stopped passenger Connell from Switzerland with three gold Rolex watches that were undeclared. They seized the watches and attempted to give Mrs. Connell a receipt. She asked them if she could make a phone call to her brother Governor Connell. Rooster and Rapacz found themselves in shock and fear. The next day, District Director Heinz Hertz was told about the Rolex seizure. He told Rapacz that he does not want anything to do with it, that they should handle it. A small penalty was then paid, and all the watches were released to Mrs. Connell. This was clearly a politically tainted case. There were many such cases then, and I am quite sure also today.

I am sure that there was much smuggling in the cargo, but hardly anyone knew how to handle such situations. Our supervisors were only interested in the quick release of cargo and passengers. Nevertheless, I started paying more attention to merchandise in cargo and spent more time looking for violations such as goods not legally marked, false invoices, undervalued merchandise, failure to present goods for Customs inspection, e.g., irregular delivery, etc. I simply felt that I could not accept the old ways of Customs and had to produce for the pay I received. To me being only a paper pusher and a government bureaucrat was not acceptable. At that time, however, the techniques and knowledge of finding narcotics in the cargo were not adequately known to me.

Operation Intercept

In 1969, the US government decided to demonstrate to the Mexican government its displeasure with its lack of cooperation in the prevention of smuggling of narcotics into America. Customs inspectors from other duty stations arrived for this blitz from different Customs ports, including Hawaii. Bob Northwest, then airport director, O’Hare, called Bill Chatfield, Ed Rapacz, and me into his office and asked us to join this massive Customs operation. In those days, all three of us had good seizure and enforcement records, and it was felt by him and the district director, Mr. Heinz Hertz, that we would well represent Chicago District. All three of us were to join Operation Intercept in El Paso. I thought it was great since it meant I would be going to the great state of Texas. While I was in Yugoslavia as a youngster, we used to watch cowboy movies and admired Texans. I still remember the movie My Darling Clementine and the music with the cowboys singing and playing guitars. This was the summer of 1969.

Air pollution at the border from thousands of smoking cars, mainly old Chevys, arriving from Mexico quickly became a major health hazard. The traffic was moving very slowly because of intensive examination of many vehicles. The clouds of carbon monoxide, dust, and other pollutants were hanging in the air at the border crossings, and the inspectors below quickly realized that this was not going to be an easy time for them. At this location in El Paso, I met inspectors from Puerto Rico, Hawaii, New York, Buffalo, and some other places. Some of these inspectors not used to air pollution had to frequently take breaks and go to the office with oxygen to clean their lungs and recover.

We were stationed at three different major crossings into Mexico: the Bridge of the Americas, the Santa Fe Bridge, and Isletta. The Bridge of Americas was the major installation and had most modern facilities and offices for both Customs and Immigration. At all the bridges, the traffic was continuously blocked and backed up, but without major incidents because of the infinite patience and