Illegal Transshipments Enforcement Act of 2002 - Directs the Secretary of the Treasury to require: (1) inspection of not less than one of every ten containers imported into the United States; (2) pre-arrival electronic filing of entry documentation within 72 hours prior to arrival for release from Customs Service custody of in-transit or in-bond goods; (3) application of technology for screening goods entering the United Stalest all in-transit goods; (4) physical verification of information filed for exportation of in-transit goods; (5) establishment of procedures to verify that in-transit goods that are declared to be exiting the United States are exported; (6) random inspections of at least one of every ten containers carried on rail cars, barges, pipelines, and trucks after importation; (7) security and background investigations of employees of all freight forwarders, booking handlers, and bonded carriers; (8) no mitigation of penalties for violations arising from transactions involving in-transit and in-bond textile and clothing goods and declarations regarding textile and apparel products on vessel manifests; (9) mis-description of a textile or apparel product on an entry document, manifest, or in-bond or in-transit documentation to be considered a purposeful and intentional act constituting fraud; (10) a specified increase in the number of field agents, import specialists, and inspectors dedicated to fraud and cargo enforcement; (11) establishment of a cargo fraud enforcement unit; (13) conduct of all inspections at ports and elimination of centralized inspection stations outside of ports; (14) establishment of rail inspection facilities near the border at all rail entry points; and (15) inspection of container rail traffic to the same extent as container port traffic.
Modifies prohibitions regarding cargo theft to: (1) delete the element that it be done with intent to convert the stolen goods to the person's own use; (2) include theft or fraud involving a trailer, air cargo container, or any Intermodal container, trailer, container freight station, warehouse, or freight consolidation facility; (3) increase the term of imprisonment for the theft of cargo valued at not more than $1,000; and (4) make it an affirmative defense that the defendant possessed the goods with the sole intent to report the matter to the owner or an appropriate law enforcement officer.
Directs the U.S. Sentencing Commission to review the Federal sentencing guidelines to provide appropriate enhancement for cargo theft.