Again it all depends what you term successful.

Basically I have had two run-ins with actually US Customs in the 28 years I have been a full-time marine surveyor.

First one: about 12 years ago authority was granted by the Customs Dept Supervisor on duty for myself and a ships agent to board a vessel (permission has to be granted by Customs/INS/Dept of Agriculture) since the field inpector was late. He arrived told we had no reason to have boarded called us liars, searched our person and bags and generally behaved in an pretty obnoxious manner ( he was accompanied by a new female trainee who he was obviously trying to impress )
An official complaint was filed, a number of witnesses including myself were interviewed by the Customs Dept equivalent of "Internal Affairs" ( hey were based ouside of the jurisdication the Tampa port and oustide of the state I believe) we got a verbal apology and it was " suggested" that a comment/statement would be placed on the officers personal file.
It appeared that they had had previous complaints about this individual.

The other occurred about a year and was a much more "serious incident" by many factors.
I was so pissed about it I was able to secure an appointment and actually have a conversation with my congressman.
Although he was very sympathetic (he apparently consulted with somebody at the Customs Dept) I was advised not to pursue that matter since in his opinion was a no win situation.

Under the present security enviornment I am fairly sure the earlier incident would not have been afforded any sort response from the current authorities.
mike


[This message has been edited by MIKESILV (edited Mar 23, 2004).]