A ribbon-cutting ceremony Wednesday at the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) Federal Center here marked completion of construction on a build-out project to relocate the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) San Juan Laboratory.
The completed project provides a full-service analytical laboratory equipped with the latest state of the art scientific equipment and capabilities, serving CBP operations in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, as well as support for law enforcement partners in the Caribbean.
“The updated lab provides the much-needed improvements to the operational areas for various lab activities by isolating each of those required needs in different, clearly defined areas within the lab,” said Francis “Fritz” Dutch, director of CBP’s Facilities, Management and Engineering Division.
The San Juan Laboratory facility was previously located at the historic Customs House in Old San Juan. The nearly $6 million build-out project at the GSA Federal Center began in May 2016 and was completed in February 2018.
“The lab includes exterior upgrades to the façade and electrical service system, as well as construction of administrative spaces and a state of the art laboratory space for microscopy, digital forensics, drug analysis, latent print processing, petroleum analysis, material conditioning, and organic and inorganic analysis. This new space optimizes CBP’s ability to service Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands with this forensic support, Weapons of Mass Destruction interdiction, and trade enforcement,” Dutch said.
