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Alan Aprea
Director, Electronics Center of Excellence and Expertise (ECEE),
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)
Since December 2021, Alan Aprea has been serving in the role of Center Director for the ECEE. The ECEE is comprised of nearly 200 employees that cover the importation compliance for the information technology and consumer electronics industry. For fiscal year 2022, the ECEE was assigned over 45,000 importer accounts that filed over 3.5 million entries valued at over $510 billion dollars. Mr. Aprea presided over the ECEE during the Centers reintegration period returning staff to the office after over two years of working offsite due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Mr. Aprea also implemented the ECEE’s expansion that included adding a fourth Division, which adjusted for the ECEE’s operational needs.
Prior to Mr. Aprea’s Center Director appointment, he served as the ECEE Assistant Center Director located at JFK International Airport in New York overseeing the Partnership Division, which was preceded by serving as the ECEE Branch Chief overseeing the Enforcement Division located at the L.A./Long Beach Seaport.
Alan Aprea has been with CBP for over 20 years, beginning as a CBP Officer at the L.A./ Long Beach Seaport. In 2006, he became an Import Specialist serving on five different commodity teams. In 2011, Mr. Aprea was selected to participate in the Center of Excellence and Expertise pilot program that comprised a national multidisciplinary team covering the information technology and consumer electronics industry.
Marc Tiritilli
Supervisory Import Specialist, AFT Center, Partnership Los Angeles/Long Beach Seaport
U.S. Customs and Border Protection Department of Homeland Security
Mr. Tiritilli was hired by the U.S. Customs Service in 1999 as an Import Specialist and later became an Import Specialist Team Leader and Supervisory Import Specialist. Mr. Tiritilli is currently a Supervisory Import Specialist assigned to the Apparel, Footwear & Textiles Center, Partnership Branch. He oversees 50 Partnership accounts and manages five Import Specialists.
He is responsible for the tariff classification, import requirements and regulations for commodities such as textiles, wearing apparel and footwear.
Ms. Elva Muñeton
Assistant Director for Trade Los Angeles Field Office
U.S. Customs and Border Protection Department of Homeland Security
Ms. Elva Muneton serves as the Assistant Director of Trade for Customs and Border Protection at the Field Office in Los Angeles, California. Her responsibilities include oversight of international trade operations for the Los Angeles ports of entry, including the LA/Long Beach Seaport and the Los Angeles International Airport. The Los Angeles Field Office is the largest in terms of international trade, processing over 4.5 million maritime containers and 86 million air cargo/parcel shipments per year. Ms. Muneton also has oversight of the Electronics Center of Excellence & Expertise that is aligned to the LA Field Office.
In 2022, Ms. Muneton served as the Acting Executive Director for Office of Trade leading the Uyghur Force Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) implementation task force for CBP. The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) was signed into law by President Biden on December 23, 2021 and it expands upon CBP’s enforcement of Section 307 of the Tariff Act of 1930. Ms. Muneton led a multi-disciplinary task force that developed Operational guidance for CBP personnel, provided Importer Guidance to the trade community and conducted a robust outreach campaign in order to prepare the trade community for CBPs implementation on June 21, 2022. Mrs. Muneton received the DHS countering Human Trafficking Award for her leadership on the implementation of the UFLPA.
Ms. Muneton also served as the Assistant Port Director for Trade at the LA/Long Beach Seaport, largest seaport operation in the nation as well as the Assistant Port Director for Trade at LAX. In her role, Ms. Muneton had direct oversight over the entire trade cargo division. Ms. Muneton has a B.S. in Political Science from Loyola Marymount University. Ms. Muneton is a subject matter expert in Intellectual Property Rights enforcement and represented CBP at the International Law Enforcement Academy in 2008 in Lima, Peru.
Africa R. Bell
Port Director, Los Angeles/Long Beach Seaport
Los Angeles Field Office
Ms. Bell currently serves as the Port Director at the Los Angeles/Long Beach Seaport. In this capacity she leads more than 650 CBP employees in all facets of CBP operations at the Los Angeles, Long Beach, and Port Hueneme seaports. Ms. Bell has oversight of CBP’s enforcement and trade compliance operations related to the processing of nearly 35% of the nation’s containerized sea cargo and the annual processing of over 2 million cruise ship passengers. She has oversight of the Los Angeles Fines, Penalties, and Forfeitures (FP&F) division, encompassing the storage and adjudication of more than $244 million in seized property. Additionally, Ms. Bell directs CBP maritime smuggling interdiction efforts along hundreds of miles of coastline in Orange, Los Angeles, and Ventura counties.
Prior to this assignment, Ms. Bell served as the Director for the Base Metals Center where she managed and directed the enforcement of trade laws and regulations governing the importation process for the base metals industry. During her tenure as Center Director, Ms. Bell completed several temporary duty assignments, to include Acting Assistant Director Field Operations, Trade for the Chicago and San Juan Field Offices, Acting Area Port Director, Chicago, and Acting Director for the Enforcement Operations Division in CBP’s Office of Trade.
Prior to assuming the role of Center Director, Ms. Bell served as Senior Advisor and Acting Deputy Chief of Staff to the Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Throughout her career, Ms. Bell has supported several trade programs and initiatives to include the Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (CTPAT) and the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) technical assistance programs.
Andrew Douglas
Port Director, Los Angeles International Airport
Mr. Douglas, who began his Federal career as an Immigration Inspector at U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, in Nogales, Arizona, has broad leadership experience at U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Most recently, he served as Assistant Director for Field Operations, Border Security, in the Detroit Field Office, where he provided operational oversight of seven major Ports of Entry; Acting Director of the National Vetting Center, where he led efforts to streamline intelligence to inform operational decisions; Acting Area Port Director for the El Paso Port of Entry, where he oversaw operations and enforcement activities of eight CBP facilities in the City of El Paso, Texas; and Acting Area Port Director for the Laredo Port of Entry, where he oversaw all enforcement operations at the busiest inland commercial crossing in United States.
Mr. Douglas was previously appointed as Area Port Director, Port Huron, Michigan, with responsibility for overseeing the Blue Water Bridge border crossing, the fourth busiest commercial land border crossing by volume; and leading intelligence and targeting operations in collaboration with partner agencies, which resulted in a 25 percent increase in narcotics seizures and an 11 percent increase in criminal arrests.
In January of 2024, Mr. Douglas was appointed as the Area Port Director, at LAX overseeing CBP operations at LAX, John Wayne and Ontario International Airports, Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas, Nevada, four user fee airports, the first in the nation dedicated air Centralized Examination Station, five Express Courier Consignment Facilities, and an International Mail Facility.
Mr. Douglas has an Associate of Science Degree in General Studies from Brigham Young University in Rexburg, Idaho; and is a graduate of the CBP Leadership Institute.
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