Customs - where are they?

[reverserunlocked]

I can't quite fathom out Customs. I fly regularly through Cardiff with KLM, usually en route to the Middle East. Once or twice I've been picked out by the 'Excuse me Sir' brigade to have my luggage rifled through.

Last time I arrived, I realised that I was somewhat over my 'aftershaves and perfumes' allowance. I was sweating a bit over this only to walk through customs and it was, er, well, closed. No-one there. Pick up a red phone if you have anything to declare. How does that work, 'hi I've got a gun, fourteen kilos of coke, some elephant tusks and an illegal immigrant in my pocket..'

Is Customs a part time thing?

[Nigerian Expat Outlaw]

Can't speak for Cardiff but I pass through LHR T3 a lot and there are often occasions where no Customs are present. Then one will appear just as the hapless "victim" gets to the end of the hall and do the business on him/her.

They use CCTV and I think maybe they study peoples body language to pick out the ones they want to have a closer look at.

Cheers,

NEO

[The SSK]

If you fly Cardiff - Amsterdam - Gulf - Amsterdam - Cardiff, you have to pass customs at your Gulf destination on the way out, and at Amsterdam on your way back.

If you managed to smuggle an extra bottle of aftershave through Amsterdam, you can carry it without fear of retribution to Cardiff. There is no customs on intra-EU arrivals (the joys of the Single Market). On arrival at Cardiff you must have passed through Immigration/Passport Control (since UK is not part of Schengen) and there will have been a security presence, although you might not have noticed it, although sniffer dogs are fairly obvious.

The gun would have been picked up in the preflight screening either at your origin or your transit point. Whether or not you had paid duty on it would be the least of your worries.

[Globaliser]

desk jockey: If you fly Cardiff - Amsterdam - Gulf - Amsterdam - Cardiff, you have to pass customs at your Gulf destination on the way out, and at Amsterdam on your way back.

If you managed to smuggle an extra bottle of aftershave through Amsterdam, you can carry it without fear of retribution to Cardiff. There is no customs on intra-EU arrivals (the joys of the Single Market). On arrival at Cardiff you must have passed through Immigration/Passport Control (since UK is not part of Schengen) and there will have been a security presence, although you might not have noticed it, although sniffer dogs are fairly obvious.I'm not sure that this Customs part of this is correct, although the immigration part is correct.

Although there is no Customs border between Amsterdam and the UK, passengers who connecting within the EU on a non-EU -> EU -> EU itinerary clear Customs at their final destination and not at the connecting point. If you fly Gulf -> London -> Amsterdam, the route through LHR Flight Connections does not take you through Customs, nor does it take you through immigration (because the UK is not Schengen). Similarly, if you fly Gulf -> London -> Edinburgh, you clear immigration in London but you clear Customs in Edinburgh (FWIW).

So I would be surprised if a Gulf -> Amsterdam -> London passenger had to clear Customs in Amsterdam. They ought not to see their bags at all at that point, if they're through-tagged.

[EGLKFlyer]

This is something I wondered too.

A few months ago I had to do a trip (for work) involving the following route in under 24 hours: IAH-LGW-BCN [leave airport, visit customer] BCN-LHR.

So... if I had anything, bought in the USA, that needed declaring (like 5,000 ciggies or the odd case of spirits) where would I have done it? I'm a British resident so logic says in Britain, but I didn't go through customs or immigration here except off of my intra-EU flight at the end of the day - and I legitimately when out through the blue channel then.

Since I was on hand-baggage only, the Spanish had no idea that I'd started off outside the EU (I'd just come from England with a British passport after all).

A minor flaw in the system perhaps?


PS I had to ditch the ciggies in the end because they wouldn't fit in my carry-on bag :)

[Globaliser]

EGLKFlyer: So... if I had anything, bought in the USA, that needed declaring (like 5,000 ciggies or the odd case of spirits) where would I have done it? I'm a British resident so logic says in Britain, but I didn't go through customs or immigration here except off of my intra-EU flight at the end of the day - and I legitimately when out through the blue channel then.

Since I was on hand-baggage only, the Spanish had no idea that I'd started off outside the EU (I'd just come from England with a British passport after all).Not quite legitimate, because you were supposed to have gone through a green/red channel if they'd had them there. If you'd had a checked bag, that would have given it away.

However, you wouldn't know unless you knew all the rules. On the face of it, this is a loophole which is easy to get through. But (a) if you were caught and you knew you were doing something dodgy, Customs would probably twig - they are pretty good at detecting when someone's lying and (b) Customs is a numbers game, anyway, so they're probably not going to be too worried if the occasional innocent with cabin baggage only wanders through the blue rather than the green channel.

[The SSK]

Globaliser Sorry, senior moment. If I'm going to get something wrong, I'm going to get it completely wrong.

[Nobend]

Couple of years back used to fly Manchester - Heathrow - Abu Dhabi and back regularly and on the return never passed through any customs with bags checked to Manchester. Of course I could have been honest and picked up the red phone at Manchester to declare the 10K of fags but I usually forgot after an overnight trip.

[Omaha]

Spoke to a guy who works for the drug squad at Dublin Airport once. He told me usually they've decided who the're going to stop before they even get off the aircraft. They build up profiles of likely suspects before the plane lands so if you're journey has taken a strange routing you'll be suspect for one. Same goes if you're travelling from a suspect destination. I'm sure the're are many other criteria such as gender, nationality, criminal record, tip offs etc or some combination of them but I don't believe many of us pax are as untracked as it appears passing through customs.