4 seized vehicles from Japan destroyed

Four vehicles from Japan that the Customs Services Division seized in October 2006 for failing to meet U.S. standards were turned over yesterday to a recycling facility for destruction.

The four seized vehicles include a Cadillac 32v Northstar, a Chrysler Vision, a Buick Regal Estate Wagon GM, and a 1995 Chevrolet Van Astro—all consigned to Pineapple Saipan Inc. and YMC Kanko Co. Ltd.

Customs director Jesus C. Muña said the U.S. brand vehicles manufactured and imported from Japan do not meet U.S. data plate standards for air emission control, among other things.

“If it doesn’t have the data plate, that means they probably didn’t conform with our standards for emission control, may not be fixed for pollution control,” Muña said in an interview at the Customs seaport area in Puerto Rico yesterday.

Muña said that Customs consulted with both the Bureau of Motor Vehicles and the Office of the Attorney General on the vehicles seized.

BMV director Juana C. Leon Guerrero, who was also at the Customs seaport area yesterday, said the vehicles also did not meet the requirements of CNMI Public Law for vehicle registration.

At past 1:30pm yesterday at the Customs seaport area, personnel from Saipan Triple Star Recycling loaded the four cars and one van into a boom truck to be brought to their recycling area in Lower Base.

Muña said that Customs ordered the vehicles to be dismantled or destroyed piece by piece and to make sure the parts won’t be used in the CNMI.

“Today, we have this recycling company to come and pick it up and they’re going to be destroyed, either shredded or run over by bulldozer, either one of two…because it cannot be driven on the road. We don’t want the parts to be used by anybody else so if it’s denied entry and nobody wants to claim it, we’re going to destroy it,” he said.

Muña said that Customs has been sending out notices to the owners of the vehicles since 2006, asking them to ship the vehicles somewhere else or send them back to where they came from, to no avail.

He said the latest notice was sent out some two weeks ago.

The Customs director also said their legal counsel issued an opinion that the division could now proceed to have the seized vehicles destroyed, prompting Customs to call a recycling firm to haul them.

Ge Zhao, general manager of Saipan Triple Star Recycling Inc., said depending on the vehicle parts, they will ship the items to China, Taiwan, or South Korea.

“But the plastic parts, we will bring to Marpi landfill. Soon we will also recycle plastics,” Zhao told Saipan Tribune.

Muña said neither Customs nor Saipan Triple Star Recycling paid each other for this undertaking.

“They’re not going to pay us, and we’re not going to receive any payment from them. We just wanted to take it away from us and use it as scrap metal,” he said.

The vehicles have been sitting at the back of the Customs seaport facility since 2006, Muña said. They were already “used” but fully operational when they were shipped to the CNMI six years ago.