Harris eng
4th Jan 2002, 00:10
seen the latest news bulletin that says 1 in 10 passengers on the plane are smuggling Columbian nose candy , and that on average 30 kilos come in on every plane from Jamaica !!
Young Paul
4th Jan 2002, 00:25
I didn't see that it was cocaine. I assumed that it was "the herb for the healing of the nations."
This has been going on for some time. The record is currently (I think) 27 couriers on one aircraft. Some die, of course, but this year only a handful have died in custody before the packages had time to pass through their bodies.
I know that one airport court processed 84 such cases in two days last autumn. The routine x-raying of Third World pax, nominally to look for TB, has revealed large amounts of swallowed drugs.
The urban sophisticates who do a line or two at parties do not seem to consider the aesthetics of inhaling something that has spent 48 hours or more in the digestive tract of a Third World courier.
I am reliably informed that one swallower started to pass packages into his underwear in flight. Desperate, he went into the aircraft toilet and recycled them. <img src="eek.gif" border="0"> <img src="eek.gif" border="0">
The usual amount swallowed is about 500 grams, which Customs value at £30k plus on the street. On conviction, a sentence of quite a few years is usual.
Airbubba
4th Jan 2002, 00:39
Well, in the U.S. it would be considered unfair to give Jamaicans increased scrutiny since they are considered a "minority" and being Jamaican is a matter of "national origin".
Here's an article from June 5, 2001 that highlights the anguish involved in U.S. pax screening:
_______________________________________________
Airport screening examined for impact on minorities
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- The U.S. Transportation Department opened an investigation on Monday of whether a high tech airline passenger screening system unfairly singles out minorities for additional security checks.
But one group that represents the people the agency sought to protect from profiling objected to the investigation, saying plans to question planeloads of passengers about their race, religion and other personal characteristics for comparison purposes was overly intrusive and unnecessary.
The investigation will review the Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System, which replaced manual checks when it was adopted by the Federal Aviation Administration in 1997 to identify any suspicious travelers. Such a step was recommended by a White House panel on aviation security.
At that time, some civil rights and other groups complained the new technology might unnecessarily flag minorities for extra security checks. For instance, Arab-Americans feared the system would unfairly single out travelers of Middle Eastern descent.
But the Arab American Institute, which initially raised some questions about the screening system when it was introduced, said on Monday that it has proven better than the subjective system of manual checks used previously.
The institute's president, James Zogby, strongly criticized the need for an investigation, which he said was overly intrusive and would cause more problems than it would solve.
"To identify all these personal characteristics. I find that to be very disturbing," Zogby said.
Zogby said he objected to the investigation long before it began. The Transportation Department has been planning the probe for more than a year.
Three week investigation
Over the next three weeks, investigators will collect information on race, religion, national origin, sex, and citizenship, as well as other data, on 40,000 passengers boarding more than 300 flights at Detroit Metro Wayne County Airport, officials said.
The Detroit area has the largest concentration of Arab-Americans in the United States.
Passengers will be interviewed and then their answers will be compared with the screening system to see who, if anyone, was singled out for extra security.
The Transportation Department reported 15 complaints system-wide in 2000, up from 13 in 1999, and 11 in 1998, an agency spokesman said.
The computerized system, widely used by U.S. airlines, analyzes reservation information to screen out passengers who do not require scrutiny beyond normal airport and airline security checks.
If that information is "incomplete" then passengers may undergo extra baggage or other checks. The system also randomly selects passengers for additional security review.
"It is such a new system, we decided to take a look at it to see if it works the way it is supposed to work," a Transportation Department spokesman said.
The system does not consider race, color, gender religion or national origin or other personal characteristics, like names. While the FAA has not disclosed what criteria is used, others said it included destination and travel patterns.
"The data gathered in Detroit should enable the department to reach conclusions regarding the impact of (the system) on a number of minority groups, including African-Americans and Arab-Americans," the Transportation Department said.
Investigations at other airports might be added gauge any discriminatory impact on Hispanics or Asians before a judgment would be made on the future of the screening system, the department said.
A Justice Department civil rights review in 1997 found the selection criteria was not discriminatory. However, that agency recommended that the system be closely monitored.