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Billions in Dirty Money Flies Under the Radar at Busiest Airports

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Re: Billions in Dirty Money Flies Under the Radar at Busiest Airports

#81

Post by input_sh »

throwaway444441 wrote: post #17
crazygringo wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The answer is in the article: > The machines can be programmed to find cash, but they aren’t because they are operated by airport-security agents, responsible for passenger safety, not customs and immigration officials. As to why the UK government doesn't pass a regulation that airport security is also responsible for detecting large amounts of cash, I have no idea.

> As to why the UK government doesn't pass a regulation that airport security is also responsible for detecting large amounts of cash, I have no idea. Shouldn't law abiding citizens have the right to possess and carry cash?

Nobody says you can't, carrying whatever amount across the border is perfectly legal. What's illegal is trying to carry >10k without declaring it to the customs.

If you're a law abiding citizen, why wouldn't you declare it? If you don't, well congrats, you're no longer a law abiding citizen.

Re: Billions in Dirty Money Flies Under the Radar at Busiest Airports

#82

Post by jfim »

fbdab103 wrote: post #63
johnneville wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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.

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-bil...

Re: Billions in Dirty Money Flies Under the Radar at Busiest Airports

#83

Post by swarnie »

SoftTalker wrote: post #66
titanomachy wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This was the UK. I don’t think $4k is “many months salary” for a lot of people in the UK.

It's certainly the case in the US for many people, why would it not be in the UK?

Because we have a national minimum wage which works out to over 2k once converted in to USD.

Even at the minimum legal level and without a raft of government hands outs which a person could expect its maybe 6-7 weeks salary.

If we take the average salary then take home per month is pocket change short of $3000

Re: Billions in Dirty Money Flies Under the Radar at Busiest Airports

#84

Post by r2_pilot »

pintxo wrote: post #80
kortilla wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your “clarification” was to post a famously ambiguous sentence. It’s trivial to parse that as the militia being regulated, not the “bearing arms” part. Especially since it’s explicitly stating that the right “shall not be infringed”.

Funny that you start with agreeing that the meaning is ambiguous, and then follow up with it being trivial to parse. So what is it? Ambiguous or trivial to parse? I don’t think you can have it both ways.

And further, since it is ambiguous, would it be so difficult for us to come together as a nation and, well, reduce the ambiguity? It's not like the Constitution is a suicide pact, we are allowed to make changes.

Re: Billions in Dirty Money Flies Under the Radar at Busiest Airports

#85

Post by ceroxylon »

suriya-ganesh wrote: post #61
mmoskal wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Survivor bias? maybe they just don't catch the ones that only had two suitcases of cash.

This. + Hastiness and overconfidence. When you do it over a long stretch of time, you try to stretch the limits occasionally

From the fraud cases I've worked on, greed does factor in and you can often see a point in time within the data where it seems like they realize they are 'getting away with it'.

Re: Billions in Dirty Money Flies Under the Radar at Busiest Airports

#86

Post by ceroxylon »

brewtide wrote: post #29
quartesixte wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

3750 for committing serious crimes seems so low, one can only imagine the desperation or lack of value understanding involved with participants. Or coercion.

The "kia boys" are out stealing car after car for $100 from interviews online. Incentives seem lower than we all think?

Sometimes they don't even get/want the $100 and just joyride until they run out of gas to post the footage on social media.

Re: Billions in Dirty Money Flies Under the Radar at Busiest Airports

#87

Post by johnneville »

fbdab103 wrote: post #63
johnneville wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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.

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

Re: Billions in Dirty Money Flies Under the Radar at Busiest Airports

#88

Post by jimbobthrowawy »

toephu2 wrote: post #16

> Most airports worldwide, including in the U.S., don’t scan passenger luggage for cash, a costly undertaking in equipment and personnel. I think this is false. Anytime I've flown with cash in my checked in luggage, it was always stolen and it was obvious someone went through my suitcase. Then I stopped doing that obviously. (happened in U.S. and Indonesia)

I think the oft-cited solution to this if you're flying domestically in the US is to pack a flare gun, declare it, and use a non-TSA lock on the suitcase. Apparently, this also greatly reduces the chance of your checked baggage getting lost or misrouted.

Re: Billions in Dirty Money Flies Under the Radar at Busiest Airports

#89

Post by imglorp »

csomar wrote: post #28
imglorp wrote: post #21

If someone really wanted to slow illicit businesses, they would look at ones of the US's biggest exports: shell corporations. Delaware and South Dakota churn them out legally by the hundreds of thousands. This is how all that laundering, tax evasion, and worse is performed. Tie then all to owners and halt much of this.

First, let me be clear that no one (country) wants to slow illicit businesses making inflows (and not committing the crime inside said country). Second, while Delaware offers privacy, you still need to bank (or even crypto) and that requires KYC/AML which really makes Delaware nothing more than a privacy tint. Finally, I don't think any country/regulator cares about all of that; they are just (in my opinion) using th…

Isn't the privacy tint the meat of laundering? After passing through a couple shells, KYC at that point just knows who made a bunch of income, but not how. What's the rest of the story?

Re: Billions in Dirty Money Flies Under the Radar at Busiest Airports

#90

Post by cardiffspaceman »

refurb wrote: post #60
HideousKojima wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

About 15 years ago my dad accidentally carried a pocket knife in his carry-on for about half a dozen different business trips before the TSA found it (he had used the same bag for a camping trip a month or two before). That it took so long to find destroyed what little trust we already had that the TSA was any more than security theater.

I used to frequent a firearms related forum and someone asked if anyone had accidentally travelled with a firearm and there were plenty of stories. Lots of examples of traveling with ammunition either loose or in magazines and it not being caught on airport x-ray. But also stories of people grabbing something from a carry-on and realizing they forgot their loaded handgun was in there. Normally it's not that big a dea…

Recently, Turks&Caicos:

https://cruiseradio.net/cruise-passenger-arrest-in-grand-tur...

Just a few bullets, 12 yrs confinement.

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