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Never mind drugs and ammo, today's smugglers are onto a different kind of contraband: refrigerant. That's according to the Environmental Protection Agency, which announced earlier today that a Miami man has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for knowingly importing approximately 278,256 kilograms of illegal hydrochlorofluorocarbon-22 (HCFC-22, also known as R-22) into the United States. R-22 is an ozone-depleting substance regulated by the EPA under the Clean Air Act.
"EPA takes seriously the smuggling of illegal substances that can harm the ozone layer, which protects us from harmful UVB radiation that can cause skin cancer and cataracts," said Cynthia Giles, assistant administrator for the EPA's Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance, in the news release. "Today's sentencing is an example of EPA's commitment to aggressively enforce U.S. laws and meet our international obligations."
In addition to the prison sentence, Brendan Clery, 34, was ordered to pay a $10,000 criminal fine and forfeit illegal proceeds in the amount of $935,240. According to court records, Clery illegally smuggled 20,460 cylinders of restricted R-22 from China, with a market value of $1,438,270. He was caught in a larger criminal investigation known as Operation Catch-22.
It's not clear who Clery's black market buyers were or how the illegal refrigerant was being used. Consumer Reports' latest experience with R-22 came last year, when we tested the first dehumidifiers to use R-410A refrigerant, the legal alternative to R-22. The newer ozone-friendly dehumidifiers were at least as good at removing humidity as those made with R-22. But obviously there are people out there who think R-22 is superior enough that they'll risk serving time behind bars to get their hands on it.
—Daniel DiClerico
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