> Is the train engineer my accomplice in the robbery? Or my accessory after the fact? Is the train company? No, even without common carrier status. Being an a

> Is the train engineer my accomplice in the robbery? Or my accessory after the fact? Is the train company? No, even without common carrier status. Being an accessory to a crime is much more narrow than "unknowingly conveyed a criminal during routine operation of a transportation company". That broad of an interpretation makes everything being an accessory to the crime. The federal government created and backs the bills the thief stole, so they helped. The city built the roads they used, so they help. Old Mister McCollem down the lane stopped walking so the thief didn't run them over, which might have helped. > But without holding one’s self out as a carrier for all, there is no common carrier status. You cannot hold out a company as sufficiently large; they must hold themselves out as wanting this status. This is not true, you're misconstruing the difference between companies that had mens rea in transporting illegal goods and companies that don't. Common carrier is an involuntary status. The government decides whether a company is or is not a common carrier and is obligated to provide services to anyone that asks (basically). Common carriers are almost categorically excluded from liability for the goods they transport because they are effectively incapable of mens rea. They did not choose to transport those goods, therefore they could not have had criminal intent in making a choice to provide service. Companies that are not common carriers _do_ have a choice when deciding whether to provide service, and thus are capable of having criminal intent when making that decision. Inversely, companies that choose to act like a common carrier _do not_ receive the same protections as an actual common carrier. Their decision to provide service to everyone without asking questions is still a decision, and can meet the mens rea bar. The most well known cases I can think of here would be The Pirate Bay and Silk Roads. Both behave as if they were common carriers and will sell/convey almost whatever you want without questions. They do not receive immunity for not asking questions, because the intent of that policy is to allow (encourage, really) illegal usage. On the flip side, the Post Office/UPS have indemnity for conveying drugs bought on Silk Roads because they actually are common carriers. They didn't decide to just not check packages, they are legally prohibited from invasive package checking and denying service to customers they find sketchy (would need a fact check on the prohibition of checking packages; I believe there are limits on what they can check, but I don't know offhand what they are).