Importer fails to ship back illegal pesticides to China

The importer of illegal pesticides that were found concealed beneath vegetable pickles failed to ship the confiscated items back to China by a May 23 deadline. Moreover, the importer is disputing the fines and reassessment of taxes that the Division of Customs Services imposed on other “misdeclared” and undeclared items that came in with the illegal pesticides in late April.

Customs identified the importer in May as Yin Jia Corp., represented by Dong Gui Li, operator of Green Consume stores on Middle Road and As Lito.

Custody of the illegal pesticides has changed hands, from Customs to the Bureau of Environmental and Coastal Quality.

BECQ administrator Frank Rabauliman confirmed yesterday that the importer was given up to last Friday to ship back to China the illegal pesticides but it failed to do so. He said the bureau is now “elevating the urgency” of the matter.

“Now we are going back to the drawing board. …The case is still open, it is still developing,” Rabauliman told Saipan Tribune.

He said BECQ will talk to the importer again. Continued failure to ship back the illegal pesticides could result in penalties or other sanctions, he said.

“Everything is still on the table,” the BECQ administrator added.

Customs director Joe Mafnas separately said yesterday that the importer is disputing the fines and the reassessment of taxes on the other items that were either “misdeclared” or “undeclared.”

These include 120 bottles of hard liquor that were declared only as cooking wine and therefore would have been assessed a lower tax.

Mafnas said Customs will meet with the importer again.

It was also learned that the importer, which is now denying ownership of the illegal pesticides, hired an attorney.

The importer’s representative, Dong Gui Li of Green Consume, ate some of the pickled leafy vegetables in front of Customs personnel when asked about the content of a 5-gallon plastic container. Customs probed further and discovered beneath the 3-inch layer of vegetables hundreds of packets of illegal pesticides.

The packets had non-English labels. Customs later found out that they were pesticides that are considered illegal on U.S. soil.

BECQ, in an earlier notice, said all pesticides must be labeled with the name of the pesticide in bold letters, restricted use designation, description of which pests are controlled, chemical name of pesticide, active ingredients and percentages, inert ingredients, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency registration number, patent numbers, directions for proper use and appropriate signal words such as caution, warning, or danger poison.