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Shipping Company Technology Accelerated Cargo Plot Probe

NEW YORK (CBS 2/WCBS 880) -- UPS, Fed Ex and DHL have a host of screening and security procedures in place, from visual inspections to X-rays, but are they enough?

"I don't think there can possibly be enough done," Midtown resident David Gibson told CBS 2's Dave Carlin.

Security at major international shipping companies begins at the customer counters.

"We have to open every single package we send international," UPS worker Wilson Moncion said.

Moncion said visual inspections, X-rays are done repeatedly.

"It goes from here we open the package, goes to the main hub. They check it out over there. Once it leaves again it will get checked up again," Moncion said.  

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WCBS 880 talks with a Sr. Fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council about cargo security

Fed Ex driver Juan Vasquez showed Carlin the scanner used to keep track of all packages. Vasquez said all packages are checked by X-ray before they even arrive in our area.

"It's not meant to be for security necessarily. It's set up to be customer service, but lucky us we get to use it when something goes wrong," security expert Robert Strang said of shipping security technology.

Technology that, in this case, reportedly allowed investigators to trace the packages back to an individual in Yemen.

"They can locate almost exactly where your package is. That's why we're out in Queens at a truck. That's why were in Chicago. That's why they are all over the place. They know where these packages are," Strang said.

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