Three hundred pairs of shoes, 58 cartons of cigarettes, a 50-kVA generator, and cases of pesticides and liquor.<\/p>\n
These were the undeclared or undervalued items discovered by the Division of Customs about two weeks ago during an inspection of an importer\u2019s container at the Port of Saipan.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a company that we are now holding,\u201d Mafnas told Saipan Tribune yesterday, noting that the cigarettes, pesticides, and liquor were smuggled. The 300 pairs of shoes were not declared as well. And the generator was valued at $1,500.<\/p>\n
Mafnas would not disclose the importer\u2019s name when asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been here two weeks. We are just working with the importer, interviewing them. We inspected the container and we found all of this undervalued, undeclared\u201d items, he said.<\/p>\n
He said fines for these items would be based on existing regulation, which calls for fines of up to 100 percent of market value. He noted that the market value for the shoes was at $30 each. \u201cThirty times 300\u2014that would be the fine,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In total, fines for this particular importer\u2014per regulation\u2014would amount to $29,000. Mafnas noted, though, that the fines would not be $29,000 but would \u201cstill be reasonable and hefty.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we forced, or say, we are not going to release this container until you pay the $29,000, there is a possibility that the importer will\u201d refuse to pay and leave it with Customs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is their first offense. We are looking at maybe a $10,000 fine\u201d but on a second or third offense, it would be \u201cworse.\u201d He said he was meeting with the importer yesterday. (Dennis B. Chan)<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Three hundred pairs of shoes, 58 cartons of cigarettes, a 50-kVA generator, and cases of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[38],"class_list":["post-214316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-saipan-tribune"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214316\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}