{"id":214949,"date":"2015-11-20T06:06:24","date_gmt":"2015-11-19T20:06:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=214949"},"modified":"2015-11-20T06:06:24","modified_gmt":"2015-11-19T20:06:24","slug":"kilili-lauds-customs-division-for-its-anti-drug-efforts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/kilili-lauds-customs-division-for-its-anti-drug-efforts\/","title":{"rendered":"Kilili lauds Customs Division for its anti-drug efforts"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Delegate<\/a>
Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan presents a congressional commendation yesterday to Division of Customs Director Jose Mafnas and Customs staff for their diligent work in fighting the war on crystal methamphetamine, or “ice” in the CNMI. (Dennis B. Chan)<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nU.S. Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (Ind-MP) honored the CNMI Division of Customs yesterday for their diligence against the spread of methamphetamine, or \u201cice,\u201d in the Commonwealth, presenting division officials with a congressional commendation for the largest ice bust in CNMI history that took place last July.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am very grateful and happy. This is Congressman Kilili showing appreciation for our efforts at the ports of entry,\u201d Customs director Jose Mafnas told reporters. \u201cThe Customs officers will be very happy that they are recognized for their efforts. It will push us to do our job more effectively.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI thank all of them,\u201d Sablan said, also noting efforts of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and CNMI Department of Public Safety.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do acknowledge Customs because they are the ones who first made the interdiction. That\u2019s very important,\u201d Sablan added.<\/p>\n

In July, Customs uncovered 12 kilos of ice in a 40-foot container from China. Mafnas said yesterday that the container was full of various violations, like pesticides, that he believed were meant to distract them from the 12 kilos of \u201cice\u201d\u2014an amount akin to a 25-lb bag of rice\u2014that was hidden in an air compressor.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen our law enforcement officers are able to prevent 12 kilos of crystal methamphetamine\u2026from entering our community, we need to stop and say thank you,\u201d Sablan said.<\/p>\n

Sablan also recently introduced legislation in Congress to allow the CNMI governor or Secretary of the Army to establish a National Guard unit. That unit, Sablan said, could be a partner in fighting drugs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe nice thing about this is that the Department of the Army will pay for that additional cost. It will not cost the Commonwealth, [or] the National Guard operational budget itself. It will be money set aside just for this additional work.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

U.S. Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (Ind-MP) honored the CNMI Division of Customs yesterday for…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":214953,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[26,7143,5491,8312],"class_list":["post-214949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-cnmi","tag-congressman-kilili","tag-customs-division","tag-national-guard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214949","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=214949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}