WASHINGTON: A Canadian citizen who was stopped at the Lynden port of entry into the US last week was caught sneaking Blu-Ray disks into the US to avoid paying duties and taxes.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection said the 47-year-old Langley, BC, man had been making multiple trips into the US every week. He always told officers he was going to get gas and had no commercial merchandise. Officers decided to take a closer look after noticing there was excessive padding and bulges in his clothing.
A pat down revealed he was hiding 24 Blu-Ray movies, all packaged, labeled and invoiced, all ready to send via the U.S. Postal Service to his online buyers. He had four movies under each sleeve, five more in the back of his shirt, 10 more in various pockets of his jacket and the rest were concealed in his undergarments.
“By his own admission, he’s been doing it for quite some time because he wanted to avoid paying the duties and fees associated with commercial activity. This time the CBP Officers’ training and experience paid off, and the DVD smuggler got caught,” Port Director Phillip Stanford said.
With multiple crossings through Lynden in November, it was not known whether he had commercial goods each time. He told officers he only concealed movies in his clothing when he had big orders to fill. He also admitted he always used the same story about coming down for gas.
