Customs officers charged

Charges of bribery and misconduct in public office were filed yesterday against two officers of the Division of Customs for allegedly receiving payoffs for the illegal entry of taxable merchandise into the CNMI.

Based on the information filed in the Superior Court by Kevin Lynch, chief of the Criminal Division of the Attorney General’s Office, Antonio S. Reyes and Benjamin S. Delos Reyes accepted the bribe from alleged smugglers in exchange for the release of such goods even without paying the corresponding taxes.

Reyes and Delos Reyes were charged with one count each of bribery and one count each of misconduct in public office – criminal offenses punishable by up to five years imprisonment and a fine of up to $1,000.

According to court documents, the two “did unlawfully and voluntarily received money in wrongful and corrupt payment…while employed as Customs officer, (to) allow merchandise to enter the Commonwealth without being properly taxed according to its value.”

The crimes were allegedly committed on or about April 8, 1999 on Saipan, according AGO’s information.

The cases against the two customs officers came nine days after four Korean nationals were apprehended and charged for allegedly attempting to smuggle close to 2,000 cartons of cigarettes into the Northern Marianas, and such delay has drawn criticisms from key officials of the administration.

“A lot of us are wondering what took the AG’s office too long to charge these customs officers. We’ve been getting all sorts of calls from people hitting us and this is not good for the government,” said a ranking administration official, who requested anonymity.

The Tribune tried to get the comment of Lynch but he did not return the two messages left in his voice mail.

Early this month, Hyun Col Cho, Chan Ho Park, Moon Ho Kim and Keum Ja Hwang were charged with violations of customs laws after they tried to bring in smuggled cigarettes with the aid of customs officers.

However, documents provided to the media through the Governor’s Office did not say whether Reyes and Delos Reyes were the customs personnel who facilitated the release of the contraband.

A previous information filed by the AGO indicated that government investigators, acting on a tip received las month, determined that an officer of the Customs Division met with one of the Korean suspects and was paid $750 in exchange for the entry of boxes of cigarettes

Court documents said in another incident a customs officer was promised to be paid $400 if he would clear the entry of 1,000 cartons of undeclared cigarettes to be brought in by Hwang from South Korea.

Meanwhile, Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio said the Department of Finance is working closely with the AGO to determine if there are other customs personnel involved in such illegal activity.

The governor has previously ordered the Customs Division to step up monitoring of Northern Marianas-bound cargoes to ensure that goods entering the islands are properly taxed especially at this time when revenues continue to drop due to economic slowdown.

“The Customs Division is tightening the monitoring of all incoming cargoes escpeially those from high-risk areas,” Tenorio said.