Page 16 - Customs Today Winter1984-OCR

An Interview with Pacific

Regional Commissioner

Quintin L. Villanueva, )r.

By Jerome Hollander

Currently, you are the only Regional also means actively developing support
Commissioner who has been se from the public and the commercial
lected from outside the Customs community. In real terms it means in
Service. Does that place you at a
creasing liaison with local law enforce
disadvantage or do you see that as ment agencies so that we can enhance
an asset? our ability to detect, deter and interdict
I was honored and delighted to narcotic smuggling. Leveraging the
have been selected to be Regional Com
public means getting involved in public
missioner, Pacific Region. During my awareness programs and utilizing
career in law enforcement I've always citizen groups such as WeTIP, the Ex
had the highest regard for the Customs plorer Scouts, ham radio operators and
Service. My coming to Customs as an other citizen crime fighter groups as
outsider should not be interpreted as be
eyes and ears to help us identify those in
ing a non-professional. I have been in dividuals and those organizations that
public service for close to 30 years; are involved in smuggling, especially in
twenty-five years with the Los Angeles areas like the West California deserts.
Police Department. By education, train There is no question that through
ing and experience, I consider myself a the use of, and our participation in,
professional law enforcement officer and organizations like the National Narcotic
public administrator. My experience in Border Interdiction System (NNBIS)
cludes line and staff assignments at the and organized crime drug enforcement
executive level after having developed a task forces and by working more closely
broad base of experience as an officer in with other Federal agencies, such as
patrol, detective and intelligence DEA and the Coast Guard, we can en
assignments. hance our ability to interdict narcotics.
Since enforcement is a top priority
in the Customs Service, then certainly I management. Quintin L. Villanueva, Jr. Are we moving into an era of pro
would consider my law enforcement ex grams such as NNBIS? Is that the
What are your law enforcement future?
perience and background as an asset. priorities?
Over the years I've been actively in Yes. I see task forces as the mode for
volved with a number of law enforce There are four major enforcement the foreseeable future. I see it as the way
ment organizations such as the Inter priorities: 1) interdiction of narcotics; 2) to go in shared resources and shared in
national Association of Chiefs of Police, interdiction of outbound critical technol telligence. I see it as a way of neutralizing
which enhances my value to the Cus ogy; 3) financial investigations; and 4) the "turf syndrome" that has a debili
toms Service. commercial fraud. There is no question tating effect on Federal enforcement ef
about our top priority being the inter forts. The concept of NNBIS can only be
Have you set any goals for your diction of narcotics. In the Pacific Re positive for Customs. We have limited
self, any changes you would like to gion we are aligning our resources to resources; the Coast Guard has limited
see accomplished in your first focus on those four enforcement priori resources; DEA has limited resources;
year? ties. Because of our limited resources we FBI has limited resources; local law en
Any goals or needed changes that intend to use the principal of leverage to forcement has limited resources. When
are identified are going to be consistent help achieve our goals. That means util we pool our resources and assets in a
with the four national goals and priori izing state and local law enforcement re coordinated effort, as we do in NNBIS,
ties set down by Commissioner von sources to the greatest extent possible. It we win and the smugglers lose. If we
Raab. These are the priorities of en work together we can neutralize the "turf
forcement, facilitation, commercial Jerome Hollander is a Public Information Offi syndrome." That is not to say that
reformation and improved resource cer in the Pacific Region. Customs is going to abrogate its primary

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