# Customs and Porn



## JoK (Nov 12, 2006)

This is disgusting. Kudos to the investigating cutoms officers for finding these s***bags:

_Published: 2008-07-25
Child porn on computers leads to charges against tanker crewmen 

Two crewmen on an oil tanker that was in the Port of Halifax this week are in custody after customs officers found child pornography on a pair of laptop computers.

Jose Ervin Mahigne Porquez, 37, and Ernesto Fadol Basanes, 43, both of the Philippines, were arrested Monday during a search of the M/T Negotiator and charged with violating the Customs Act by smuggling prohibited goods.

If convicted, the men could be deported and fined up to $1,000. 

They were arraigned in Dartmouth provincial court Tuesday and were to return to court today for a bail hearing.

Laurie Gillmore, a spokeswoman for the Canada Border Services Agency, said one of the seized laptops contained pornographic pictures of boys and girls as young as eight. The other had images of children possibly as young as 12.


Police are also investigating the seizure and could lay criminal charges against the two men.

The ship left port without the men._


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## mikeg (Aug 24, 2006)

Bring back 'Keel Hauling' plus a free trip to Davy Jones Locker.


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## ROBERT HENDERSON (Apr 11, 2008)

Maybe some of you computer buffs can explain this. The downloading of music and file sharing is to be monitored by the internet servers and those that do download music are to pay a fee of £30 per year.
If people who download music can be checked, why cannot the same criteria be used against child porn and the users denied access to the internet?
Robert


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## Gavin Gait (Aug 14, 2005)

The problem is that its easy to monitor mp3 format files ( but they cannot tell what they are just that they are a music file ) , the same goes for images. jpg/jpeg images are sent in their millions every hour and although it is possible to trace where image files are sent it is still a technology in progress to be able to check every file automatically unfortunately.

Lock people like this up and throw away the key I say !!!


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## JoK (Nov 12, 2006)

I would venture that Customs wasn't there specifically looking for kiddie porn, this was a bonus in their normal surveys.
When I was working on the tanker in and out of the former USSR, their Customs always searched for porn magazines in the cabins and common areas.


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## sparkie2182 (May 12, 2007)

South Africa was always the place to hide "Pirelli" style calenders, and "girlie" material of the most inoffensive kind..........
a ships agent told me that this wasnt so much a simple puritanical exercise, as such, but the thought of a black man (dock worker) seeing the flesh of a white woman could not be countenanced under appartheid.


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## Keltic Star (Jan 21, 2006)

*A Double Standar*



sparkie2182 said:


> South Africa was always the place to hide "Pirelli" style calenders, and "girlie" material of the most inoffensive kind..........
> a ships agent told me that this wasnt so much a simple puritanical exercise, as such, but the thought of a black man (dock worker) seeing the flesh of a white woman could not be countenanced under appartheid.



During the appartheid years we were warned not to have even a copy of Playboy in our baggage when arriving at Jan Smuts airport in Jo'burg but the garbage bins outside the arrivals hall had adverts for a local escort service on each side.


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## JoK (Nov 12, 2006)

_Seamen face child-porn charges 

Two Filipino crew members expected to plead guilty, rejoin ship 

By STEVE BRUCE Court Reporter 


Two Filipino seamen charged after customs officers searching a ship found child pornography on a pair of laptop computers will be spending a few more days behind bars.

Jose Ervin Mahigne Porquez, 37, and Ernesto Fadol Basanes, 43, were supposed to have a bail hearing Friday in Dartmouth provincial court but only made a brief appearance as the matter was put over until Monday morning.

Geoff Newton, one of two lawyers acting for the men, told Judge Flora Buchan the case could be resolved at that time.

Customs officers arrested the men Monday during a routine search of the oil tanker M/T Negotiator in the Port of Halifax and charged them with violating the Customs Act by smuggling child pornography.

On Friday, Halifax Regional Police announced criminal charges had been laid as well. Both men are charged with possessing child pornography, while Mr. Basanes is also accused of possession for the purpose of distribution. The mandatory minimum penalty for a summary conviction of possessing child pornography is 14 days in jail.

Sources say the crewmen will plead guilty to the possession charge Monday, receive the minimum sentence and be freed from custody. By then, they will have been on remand for a week, which would be considered the equivalent of two weeks in jail.

It’s unclear what will happen with the Customs Act charge, which carries a maximum fine of $50,000.

A Canada Border Services Agency spokeswoman said Thursday that pornographic pictures of boys and girls as young as eight were found on the laptops.

John Renzetti, the agency’s lead investigator, was reluctant Friday to talk about the case while it was still before the courts.

"But what I can tell you is that the Canada Border Services Agency and our border officers are vigilant in fulfilling their mandate as far as interdicting weapons, obscenity, hate propaganda, child pornography, stuff like that," Mr. Renzetti said. "Our officers are well trained and . . . have tools at their disposal to assist them. For example, if they’re searching laptops or computers, there’s software they can use in order to quickly view all the pictures."

While the port’s website indicates that the Negotiator is no longer berthed in the harbour, sources said it was anchored nearby, waiting for the two crewmen to be released.

( [email protected])

_


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