4 ms·

Separation of duties. Airport security do one job, border farce/customs do the other. Turning airport security into customs and excise agents would be legally

Separation of duties. Airport security do one job, border farce/customs do the other. Turning airport security into customs and excise agents would be legally challenging. Same way TSA in America largely don’t give a flying fuck when Amercians from legal states board international flights with cannabis products such as gummies or vape pens - that’s a problem for the customs people on the other side. I should note here that some places do mix the duties - the airport security guys at Schipol will make a vague effort to stop you from taking a big bag of weed through, and will politely take it off your hands.

woleium 2y ago
Free weed!
pests 2y ago
That's how it worked from experience and stories from friends. TSA is searching your bag for security things, not trying to find drugs. If they find it, might toss it, might ignore it, but they are not directly a police agency, they dgaf.
johnneville 2y ago
despite the separation of duties, at first glance, it would appear worthwhile to me for the customs agencies to buy access to the CT scanners or just the output from the security agencies so they could easily detect the cash maybe there are laws regarding privacy or just bureaucratic challenges that prevent this though
- fbdab103 2y ago
  On the gripping hand, traveling with cash should not be a crime. We already surrender so much privacy to the TSA. I would fear that we would be hearing about more "TSA vs $20k in stacks of cash" civil forfeiture cases.
  - crazygringo 2y ago
    It's not a crime. You just have to declare it. Of course, this information is going to be interesting to the police. So if they are the proceeds of crime, it will probably help get you caught. It's not really any different from banks reporting every deposit of $10K or over. The government wants to track all large transfers of money both in bank accounts and across borders, so that it can identify money flows that are not being reported to the IRS and/or are the proceeds of criminal activity.
  - jfim 2y ago
    That's already the case, although not for domestic travelers it seems. See for example https://reason.com/2020/07/30/homeland-security-seized-2-billion-in-cash-from-travelers-at-u-s-airports/ https://reason.com/2020/07/30/homeland-security-seized-2-bil...
  - johnneville 2y ago
    for sure, I was thinking from the narrower government perspective rather than the larger "is this the right thing to do" view and appreciate the reminder to keep things in context
gooseyman 2y ago
This is correct. A friend of ours works at TSA. They saw a sealed envelope that looked like a large amount of cash. Questioned the passenger, he answered “well”, but wasn’t a security threat so they let him through and called the correct authority at his domestic destination.

woleium 2y ago

Free weed!

pests 2y ago

That's how it worked from experience and stories from friends. TSA is searching your bag for security things, not trying to find drugs. If they find it, might toss it, might ignore it, but they are not directly a police agency, they dgaf.

johnneville 2y ago

despite the separation of duties, at first glance, it would appear worthwhile to me for the customs agencies to buy access to the CT scanners or just the output from the security agencies so they could easily detect the cash maybe there are laws regarding privacy or just bureaucratic challenges that prevent this though

fbdab103 2y ago
On the gripping hand, traveling with cash should not be a crime. We already surrender so much privacy to the TSA. I would fear that we would be hearing about more "TSA vs $20k in stacks of cash" civil forfeiture cases.
- crazygringo 2y ago
  It's not a crime. You just have to declare it. Of course, this information is going to be interesting to the police. So if they are the proceeds of crime, it will probably help get you caught. It's not really any different from banks reporting every deposit of $10K or over. The government wants to track all large transfers of money both in bank accounts and across borders, so that it can identify money flows that are not being reported to the IRS and/or are the proceeds of criminal activity.
- jfim 2y ago
  That's already the case, although not for domestic travelers it seems. See for example https://reason.com/2020/07/30/homeland-security-seized-2-billion-in-cash-from-travelers-at-u-s-airports/ https://reason.com/2020/07/30/homeland-security-seized-2-bil...
- johnneville 2y ago
  for sure, I was thinking from the narrower government perspective rather than the larger "is this the right thing to do" view and appreciate the reminder to keep things in context

gooseyman 2y ago

This is correct. A friend of ours works at TSA. They saw a sealed envelope that looked like a large amount of cash. Questioned the passenger, he answered “well”, but wasn’t a security threat so they let him through and called the correct authority at his domestic destination.