The Customs and Excise Division of the Ministry of Finance has acquired a Multi-Mode Threat Detector machine to improve its ability to detect contraband items, including narcotics and explosives, which are smuggled into the country.
Acknowledging that border control and security globally had become more sophisticated over the years, Finance Minister Larry Howai said, “Gone are the days when customs officers could simply eyeball arriving passengers to determine potential risks. Not only have passengers intent on nefarious deeds become highly adept at sneaking contraband into and out of our country, the sheer numbers of people entering and leaving T&T have made such simple profiling impractical.”
Howai was speaking at the handing over ceremony of the equipment at Customs House, in Port-of-Spain on Friday. Howai said authorities needed to step up border control practices in commensurate fashion, hence the introduction of the 21st-century methods which he said were currently being deployed at all ports.
Howai said the detectors were only one of government’s approaches to increasing border security. He said 50 new officers were being trained, and allocations in this year’s budget will be put towards acquiring more sniffer dogs for the airports and training handlers.
Improved measures at the sea ports include additional container scanners. A new scanner donated by the People’s Republic of China is already in operation at the Port of Port-of-Spain, and Howai is optimistic that two which were recently bought from the US will be fully operational by the end of November.
Two additional machines are expected to arrive in the country next month, and with the help of US Customs, who are assisting in training local officers, these machines are expected to be functioning by the end of the year. US Customs and Border Patrol attaché to T&T Robert L Gross said these machines were very effective, and they were primarily used in the US, in explosives detection.
Gross said a group of T&T customs officers had just returned from Miami, where they had received seaport training, and that another group would soon be trained in handling containerised cargo and vehicle searches. He said the introduction of fibre-optic scopes and density meters would also be part of the training.