The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "U.S.Customs" ...
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Need to Know: Crossing the Line at the Border Parts 1 & 2
Few, if any, pieces published or broadcast in 2012 had as much impact as “Crossing the Line at the Border,” a joint project of the weekly PBS newsmagazine, “Need to Know,” and the Nation Institute that was in the best tradition of American investigative journalism. Within days of its broadcast, 16 members of Congress demanded that the U.S. Justice Department investigate the killing of Anastasio Hernandez Rojas, a 42-year-old Mexican whose death at the hands of U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents was detailed in our report. A few months later, a U.S. attorney in convened a federal grand jury. It is currently considering criminal charges in the case. And months after that, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said the incident had prompted it to launch a full-scale review of its use of force. Hernandez Rojas had a fatal heart attack shortly after being subdued by agents, beaten, and shot with a Taser gun at the San Ysidro border crossing on May 28th, 2010. His death was largely ignored until the "Need to Know” team, in partnership with the Investigative Fund of the Nation Institute, unearthed never-before-seen eyewitness video of the incident.
Tags: U.S. Justice Department; border; killing; U.S. Customs and Border Protection; U.S. Department of Homeland Security; Taser
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Nuclear Smuggling Project
ABC News reveals major lapses and gaps in US Homeland Security at ports, by smuggling in harmless depleted Uranium from Jakarta, Indonesia to Los Angeles. ABC News says that the shipping container sent by ABC News was never opened for inspection at any point during this three week transit.
Tags: U.S.Customs; Dr.Thomas Cochran; Dr.Graham Allison; Natural Resources Defense Council; Asa Hutchinson
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A Colombian village caught in a crossfire
The LA Times investigates a 1998 controversial bombing of a Colombian village, in which 18 people were killed. The report finds that U.S. military help played a role in the tragedy. The story refutes the Colombian military's version that the bombing was actually a premature detonation of a car bomb planted by rebels, and finds the prosecutors' charge -- that a Colombian air force helicopter actually dropped the bomb -- to be more credible. Other findings are that U.S. Customs planes, tracking a plane supposedly filled with drugs, helped initiate the bombing; two American companies provided supplies and help to the Colombian military on the day of the operation; the bombing site was under aerial surveillance of a U.S. Coast Guard officer.
Tags: FOI; FBI; human rights; drug war; military aid; Alien Tort Claims Act
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ABC News Special 9/11 -- Nuclear Smuggling Project
Broadcast on the anniversary of 9/11, an ABC investigation illustrates the threat of nuclear terrorism by showing how a shipment of radioactive material can easily pass through the U.S. customs. The segment shows correspondent Brian Ross traveling with a suitcase of depleted uranium across Eastern Europe, which he later shipped from Istanbul, Turkey, to the United States. The test material cleared the U.S. customs and was delivered to a warehouse at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge.
Tags: nuclear weapons; radiation; radioactive material; nuclear energy; safety; security; health; Osama bin Laden; al Qaida; TAPE; TRANSCRIPT
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Pot Truck
KGTV-TV investigated the case of two Mexican citizens sentenced to five years in a Mexican prison for drug trafficking after they bought a truck from the U.S. Customs auction hall that still had old Marijuana hidden inside. The KGTV-TV investigation revealed U.S. Customs did not perform a thorough search of the truck before selling it at the auction. The investigation helped overturn the Mexicans' conviction and freed them from prison.
Tags: U.S. Customs; auction house; drug trafficking; Marijuana; Mexicans; TAPE; TRANSCRIPT
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Gunrunners
This Web site was done jointly with a PBS Frontline/Word episode, "Gunrunners," which examined the "secret activities of international gun smugglers and the efforts of United Nations investigators to track and stop this trafficking," according to the contest questionnaire.
Tags: weapons; trade; crime; military intelligence; CIA; U.S. Customs; Department of Defense; arms; Somalia; Interpol; irewar03
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Torpedoed G-man unit rising like phoenix from its ashes
A San Antonio Business Journal investigation discovers that inspectors of the U.S. Customs are linked to Mexican drug traffickers. The package of stories reveals the covered-up findings of a federal task force that was originally created to investigate law-enforcement corruption in Arizona, but several years later was hastily disbanded. Conroy examines how the suppressed cases are connected to the suspected murder of a former Customs supervisor.
Tags: U.S./Mexico border; law enforcement; Department of Justice; FBI; special agents; intelligence; federal agencies; whistleblowers
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Unstable Element: Suddenly, Small Gaps In Nuclear Security Look Like Chasms
The Wall Street Journal examines evidence that al Qaeda, the organization of Osama bin Laden, has tried to obtain weapons-grade nuclear material. The article looks at the possibilities for terrorists to build nuclear weapons by using resources of current or former nuclear-power countries. Even though the reporters have found the evidence related to al Qaeda to be "sketchy and unverified ... it has sent authorities around the world rushing to shore up security measures that are in some cases surprisingly weak." The story finds that "armed guards at nuclear-weapons depots often lose in exercises with mock assailants," and that "materials for making a nuclear bomb are accessible enough to support a black market."
Tags: Osama bin Laden; terrorism; al Qaeda; uranium; International Atomic Energy Agency; United Nations; Exelon Corp.; Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; college students; Energy Department; TNT; Defense Department; U.S. Customs Service; ex-Soviet republics; military; Project on Government Oversight
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Issue of Police Access To Express Parcels is No Open-and-Shut Case
As drug dealers send cash and narcotics via "X-Daddy" (FedEx), tension is building between shippers and law enforcement over access to suspect packages. U.S. Customs Service seized 970 drug-laden packages in '99, up from 69 in '96. The U.S. Attorney in Richmond, Va., has accused UPS of failing to cooperate on one of its investigations. Shippers maintain their priority is simply on-time delivery.
Tags: UPS; cocaine; smuggling; drugs; DEA; FedEx; mail; shipping; privacy; express delivery
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Singled Out
WAGA-TV reports "a statistical analysis of six months' worth of passenger searches by U.S. Customs inspectors at Hartsfield International Airport. We found inspectors routinely targeted African-American passengers looking for drugs. The searches included hands-on body searches, strip searches, monitored bowel movements and x-rays of passenger's intestines at a local hospital. The analysis determined inspectors rarely found drugs. In fact, of all the African-American passengers searched in six months, 99 percent were innocent.."
Tags: TAPE TRANSCRIPT CAR racial profiling DEA Drug Enforcement Agency Port Authorities Justice Department