A state-of-the-art X-Ray cargo scanning technology, called the OmniView Gantry X-ray Inspection System, built by Billerica MA-based American Science & Engineering, was instrumental in discovering 1,440 packages of marijuana hidden in a container carrying a shipment of clay pottery.By George Lauriat, AJOTOn March 17th, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers at the Charleston, SC, discovered anomalies in a container while scanning it with X-ray device. After further examination, they found 1,440 packages of marijuana that totaled 2,075 pounds hidden inside the shipment of clay pots that originated in Mexico. It was a major bust with the marijuana tallying a street value of approximately $1.4 million. Following detection, the shipment was then turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for further investigation. The container was moved to the Centralized Examination Station (CES) at the Charleston Freight Station and was again scanned with OmniView X-Ray equipment at the CES. According to a release from CBP “Through interagency coordination”, ICE agents quickly arrested five subjects. Although the seizure of such a large amount of marijuana was important, the manner in which the interception was accomplished might be more so. One of the more interesting features about the seizure was the new technology involved. Back in September of 2007, the OmniView Gantry X-ray Inspection System was deployed as part of pilot program to scan containers at US ports of entry. Joe Reiss AS&E’s VP of Marketing, told the AJOT that the Port of Charleston was chosen partly because “the port’s is home to Project Seahawk, a Law Enforcement Task Force that brings together federal, state and local agencies to improve port security, and serves as a model for port security.” “We [AS&E] were invited into the project as one the technological approaches to improving sport security under the Seahawk umbrella.” In the past, the only real technology was a careful visual examination of the box followed by opening the container and detailed inspection of the contents by Customs – a time consuming process, given container volumes flowing through ports like Charleston. In recent years, X-Ray technology involved two-transmission system that enables to have both a side and top view of the container to build up an interpretation of the contents. Although this system is effective, it tends to highlight denser objects making reads of less dense materials more difficult. The advantage technology like OminView employs is that enables a multi-view X-ray inspection tool that provides high penetration of dense materials but also can discriminate organics and inorganics. AS&E offers a Z Backscatter imaging system that provides offers multiple views of the cargo under inspection, improving detection, while facilitating interpretation of the X-ray image. The system can be configured with one, two, or three Z Backscatter X-ray detectors, allowing left, right and top down views of the object under examination. Z Backscatter creates images that highlight low atomic number (“low Z”) materials, such as explosives, drugs, alcohol, and tobacco. These and other organics stand out as bright objects in the Z Backscatter images, making them easy to identify in photo-like quality. The system is mounted on twin rails. A truck with the container drives up and the driver disembarks. The OmniView then moves along the tracks scanning the container. The process generally takes under a minute. The images are then sent to a control room for CBP analysis. The X-Ray’s emitted by the system are lower than medical X-rays making the process safe both for the operators and cargos. Depending on the configuration the units cost between $3 million to $5 million.