United States v. Samuel Evans et al (Customs)
It is a clone of this request.
| Submitted | March 17, 2016 |
| Est. Completion | None |
MuckRock users can file, duplicate, track, and share public records requests like this one. Learn more.
Communications
From: Michael Best
To Whom It May Concern:
This is a request under the Freedom of Information Act. I hereby request the following records:
All materials related to United States v. Samuel Evans et al., AKA the 'Brokers of Death' arms case. The case was handled by the United States Customs Service in the 1980s.
The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.
In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.
Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 20 business days, as the statute requires.
Sincerely,
Michael Best
From:
April 07, 2016 Michael Best MuckRock DEPT MR 23830 411A Highland Ave Somerville, MA 02144-2516 RE: ICE FOIA Case Number 2016-ICFO-28502 Dear Mr. Best: This acknowledges receipt of your March 17, 2016, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), for records pertaining to United States v. Samuel Evans et al., AKA the 'Brokers of Death' arms case. Your request was received in this office on April 07, 2016. Due to the increasing number of FOIA requests received by this office, we may encounter some delay in processing your request. Per Section 5.5(a) of the DHS FOIA regulations, 6 C.F.R. Part 5, ICE processes FOIA requests according to their order of receipt. Although ICE’s goal is to respond within 20 business days of receipt of your request, the FOIA does permit a 10- day extension of this time period. As your request seeks numerous documents that will necessitate a thorough and wide-ranging search, ICE will invoke a 10-day extension for your request, as allowed by Title 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(6)(B). If you care to narrow the scope of your request, please contact our office. We will make every effort to comply with your request in a timely manner. Provisions of the FOIA allow us to recover part of the cost of complying with your request. We shall charge you for records in accordance with the DHS Interim FOIA regulations as they apply to non-commercial requesters. As a non-commercial requester, you will be charged 10 cents per page for duplication; the first 100 pages are free, as are the first two hours of search time, after which you will pay the per quarter-hour rate ($4.00 for clerical personnel, $7.00 for professional personnel, $10.25 for managerial personnel) of the searcher. We will construe the submission of your request as an agreement to pay up to $25.00. You will be contacted before any further fees are accrued. We have queried the appropriate program offices within ICE for responsive records. If any responsive records are located, they will be reviewed for determination of releasability. Please be assured that one of the processors in our office will respond to your request as expeditiously as possible. We appreciate your patience as we proceed with your request.
Your request has been assigned reference number 2016-ICFO-28502. Please refer to this identifier in any future correspondence. To check the status of an ICE FOIA/PA request, please visit . Please note that to check the status of a request, you must enter the 2015-ICFO-XXXXX or 2016-ICFO-XXXXX tracking number. You may contact this office at (866) 633-1182. Our mailing address is 500 12th Street, S.W., Stop 5009, Washington, D.C. 20536-5009. (http://www.dhs.gov/foia-status) http://www.dhs.gov/foia-status
Regards,
ICE FOIA Office
Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Freedom of Information Act Office
500 12th Street, S.W., Stop 5009
Washington, D.C. 20536-5009
Telephone: 1-866-633-1182
Visit our FOIA website at
www.ice.gov/foia
From: MuckRock.com
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on March 17, 2016. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: ICE-FOIA
Good afternoon,
We are still awaiting for a response from the tasked agency within ICE.
Sincerely
ICE/FOIA
-
~WRD000
From:
Mr. Best,
ICE's final response to your FOIA request, 2016-ICFO-28502, for records pertaining to United States v. Samuel Evans et al., AKA the 'Brokers of Death' arms case is attached.
Sincerely,
ICE FOIA
-
2016-ICFO-28502_158542
From: Michael Best
I am appealing the integrity of the search, as the involvement of the agency's predecessor department was highly publicized. Therefore, there is no doubt that records exist.
Further, FOIA case law establishes the extent to which agencies must search all records system reasonably believed to contain responsive documents, even if it means contacting former employees. Truitt v. Department of State, 897 F.2d 540, 542 (D.C. Cir. 1990) makes it explicitly clear that it is the obligation of the Department to “conduct a search reasonably calculated to uncover all relevant documents.” In addition, the Justice Department’s May 2004 FOIA Guide states that an agency “cannot limit its search to only one record system if there are others that are likely to turn up the information requested.”