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Body armor and replica grenades. Counterfeit Rolex watches and Apple AirPods. Six hundred pounds of cocaine and enough fentanyl to kill 1.5 million people.
Those are among the items intercepted at Michigan border crossings in 2019.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials said they had a banner year, leading the nation in interceptions of unreported currency and biological specimens that pose a threat to safety and security.
“During this challenging year our officers assigned around the Detroit field office worked countless hours to safeguard the American homeland at and beyond our nation’s borders,” Christopher Perry, director of field operations for CBP in Detroit, said in a statement.
CBP’s Detroit Field Office includes the Ambassador Bridge and Detroit-Windsor Tunnel, the Blue Water Bridge in Port Huron, the International Bridge in Sault Ste. Marie, and Detroit Metropolitan Airport.
On a daily basis, an average of 17,000 passenger cars, 6,500 commercial vehicles, 29 commercial aircraft, and 15 cargo trains passed through the ports.
At Michigan’s five ports of entry with Canada, officers seized $7.8 million, 495 pounds of marijuana, 10 pounds of fentanyl, 600 pounds of cocaine, 13 pounds of methamphetamine, and 62 firearms.
They also arrested 549 people with outstanding felony warrants for crimes ranging from murder to human trafficking.
CBP agriculture specialists intercepted more than 2,043 pests, “preventing the entry of potentially destructive plant and animal terrors that threaten the nation’s vital agriculture industry,” the agency said in a news release. Pests include insects, invasive plants, plant pathogens, and prohibited animal products.
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