WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers in Chicago intercepted 71 shipments containing dangerous chemicals during an operation involving five Ports of Entry and two international airports within a week last month.
During this operation, carried out between March 16 and 22, officers from the Office of Field Operations, or OFO, were focused on identifying and intercepting precursor chemical shipments arriving in the Mail, Express Consignment, and Air Cargo environments.
OFO had identified a significant increase of precursor chemical seizures over the last six months. The interception of precursor chemicals have significantly increased in fiscal year 2025 with 151 seizures from October to December 2024 alone, compared with 132 seizures in fiscal year 2024.
During the operation, Chicago CBP identified high-risk shipments and seized 67 shipments of Human Growth Hormones and Steroids, 3 shipments of precursor chemicals, and 1 shipment of 4-Butanediol. Most of these shipments originated from Hong Kong and were destined for different cities within the U.S. They were being sent under the master carton smuggling scheme. A master shipment can have several smaller preaddressed unmanifested or mis-manifested parcels which would later be sent through a domestic carrier, CBP said in a press release.
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