A Customs and Border Protection supervisor assigned to the Maine-Canada border has been arrested and charged after FBI agents say he was caught on hidden camera tearing apart government computers, ripping out processors and memory, stuffing in cheaper parts, and plugging the machines back into CBP’s network.
Terry “Jiajia” Liu, 39, of Calais, Maine, described himself as a native of Guangzhou, China. He worked as a CBP supervisor at the Calais Port of Entry, with duties stretching to the Ferry Point and Milltown crossings.
CBP officers are required to be U.S. citizens. According to The Maine Wire, Liu has posted images suggesting he voted in 2020. That does not answer the question every American should be asking: how did a man from Guangzhou end up with after-hours access to Homeland Security computers on the northern border?
According to an FBI affidavit obtained by Steve Robinson at The Maine Wire, CBP IT staff discovered in late 2025 that computers at three Maine border facilities had been modified without authorization. The count grew to 46 machines: 38 in Calais, six at Ferry Point, two at Milltown.
Thirty-nine had their CPUs swapped. Six had RAM changed. Eight had hard drives replaced.
The original hardware included 14th-generation Intel Core i7 processors. What went back in were older, weaker chips, including Pentium-class parts that did not meet CBP specs. Many of those computers were then reconnected to the agency network.
Port Director Theodore Cummings had already told Liu in writing in March 2025: “Please do not move any computers or computer parts.” Stay in your lane. File a ticket. Liu allegedly kept going.
Investigators installed cameras. On a January overnight shift, footage reportedly shows Liu carrying computers into a training room, popping the side panels, pulling processors, scraping thermal paste, installing replacements, and hooking the machines back up to monitors, keyboards, and network cables.
At one point he appeared to log in with his government ID. Another camera later caught him pulling a memory module and dropping it in his desk drawer.
Liu admitted to the FBI on September 9 that he used CBP parts in Newegg’s trade-in program for store credit. First he said he was trying to make the computers “more efficient.”
Then he said he did it because he was angry about how long CBP repairs took. The affidavit says he knew the swaps degraded performance, according to Press Herald.
Newegg records showed repeated trade-ins of 14th-generation Intel i7 processors matching the missing government parts, about $200 a pop. CBP estimates it would cost more than $20,000 just to put the right parts back in, and more than $105,000 to replace the 46 computers.
Liu is charged with theft of government property and destruction of government property. Each count carries up to 10 years in federal prison.
Prosecutors want him held. They cite frequent international travel, financial resources, foreign connections, and a home so close to Canada that an ankle monitor might not stop him from walking out of the country.
A Washington County source told The Maine Wire Liu was grabbed at Bangor International Airport while trying to catch a flight to China. His Poole Street property in Calais, purchased in 2018 and sitting on the Canadian border, was raided Thursday. Court records have not independently confirmed every detail of the airport stop.
Who hired him? Who cleared him? Who thought limited “IT duties” meant he could be left alone on midnight shifts with the passenger-side computers while traffic was directed to the cargo side? Why did it take months and hidden cameras after a written order not to touch the machines?
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