Page 16 - Customs Today Winter1984-OCR
P. 16

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


































































































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