James Suckling gets popped for smuggling

[Andy Velebil]

Seems JS had a bit of a run in with the US Customs and Border Patrol agents. Seems he "forgot" about two cuban cigars and a few too many bottles of wine.

http://www.cigaraficionado.com/Cigar/CA ... 85,00.html

but how do you blame the CBP agents for doing their job. I don't think trying to lay blame on them is the right way to go about this. He is and has been a professional wine and cigar writer for decades. He of all people should have known better. Now he wants to blame the CBP agents for his illegal acts. I mean come on James, your article is a little out of line....but I love the pic of you and the wine stained shirt (what wine lover doesn't travel with a corkscrew though?)

[Peter W. Meek]

You have to decide just how much trouble you are willing to accept. If you are in the right (or if you are in the wrong by some known amount) you can fight it out to the bitter end, but it might take a considerable amount of time, effort, and money. JS seemed to work this almost right for about half the interaction, and then lost it.

If you don't want trouble, then you never try to push the envelope. Importing cases of wine may have been legal, but he HAD to have known that it would cause raised eyebrows at the border. If he wanted to bring in the wine, then he should have scrubbed the car and all luggage of any possibility of hassle. If he wanted a trouble-free crossing, then he shouldn't have tried to bring in the wine. Period.

(ranting and raving ON)
If I was willing to subject myself to the tin-pot dictators that have been given charge of our ???security??? I might consider flying from (and now, to) American airports or crossing borders, but I ain't, so I don't. I can drive anywhere in the 48 states within 48 hours. (I've twice done 2000 miles in under 32 hours recently; single handed.) I don't have any pressing need to go elsewhere. Plenty of places I haven't seen (or would like to see again) within driving distance.

If I HAD to go somewhere requiring flying or border crossing, I would set myself up squeaky-clean.

If I was traveling on a whim (or just feeling pissy) I might be willing to spend some time arguing, miss my flight, spend a little time in jail (I've been in jail before; it isn't intolerable), and raise some holy hell over civil rights. All I would have to do at an airport would be to refuse to take the flight because of some twit hassling me, and they would have to unpack the entire baggage compartment to find my luggage (no baggage flies without the person who checked it in). I doubt they could force me to give up my baggage claim check without killing me, so every piece of luggage would have to be associated with a passenger before the plane could take off. Everybody off, get out the claim checks, match every piece of luggage with a traveler, load every thing and every passenger back on (and hope this hasn't sent a few more passengers postal), and try to get the plane off the ground with no more hassle. It might almost be worth it. I'm retired; I have some free time available.

Like Arlo said, "Maybe it will become a movement..." A few people a day in airports all across America will refuse to be bullied, take a stand, refuse to fly under these conditions, and bring the TSA to its knees.

[Marc J.]

Wow! That was quite an experience. It just seems to me that the officers at the second station were bent on making the inspection as difficult & painful as possible upon JS. True there were the three additional bottles as well as the cigars, which does give them grounds for a more in-depth investigation. But it did seem that at the very end of the encounter it really wasn't about the letter of the law anymore and had morphed into something else.

Marc

[Glenn E.]

Customs agents have one of the worst jobs in the world. People are constantly lying to them and trying to sneak something past them. Everyone wants to be their buddy, but only long enough to break the law just a little bit.

They're there to enforce the law. If you disagree with the law, that's fine, but don't take it out on the CBP Agents. They can't change the law.

I try to be very meticulous with my Customs Declaration when I travel, and I've never had a problem. Some day I probably will, but there's no point in getting upset about it. Just cooperate, be as pleasant as possible with the officers, and admit to your mistakes. Above all, don't be condescending or smug.

"It’s according to the 21st amendment, among other things" was probably the turning point. A better answer would have been "I'm a wine critic and I travel a lot, so I try to keep up-to-date on all of the appropriate laws." The former is combative; the latter is an explanation for why you have knowledge beyond that of the average person. Help them help you.

[Roy Hersh]

There are two sides to every story and we don't know "tone" or "looks given" etc ... nonetheless, regardless of how tough a job it is and I believe guarding that Border must be a total hell hole of a job ... but ... they obviously knew the outcome of forcing someone to open wine with a screw driver and had fun humiliating him that way. This read like a horror film. That part to me, was just plain wrong. I would bet a Dominican cigar ... that JS was in possession of a cork screw or two. They'd never have allowed him to use one though. They wanted to make him feel stupid. I wonder if he'll wait at Tijuana next time he goes to Mexico, if he ever does?

[Eric Menchen]

Declare the cigars? I didn't think Cubans were legal at all.

He looked annoyed, and told me that they follow federal regulations. I simply and politely reminded him that the importation of alcohol into the state of California was a state matter and not federal.

“How do you know this?” he said.

“It’s according to the 21st amendment, among other things,” I told him.

I find so much wrong with these statements, on both sides.

[Derek T.]

James appreas to have been rather foolish when packing and considering what he should and should not have taken on his trip. The officers appear to have just been plain old nasty. An unfortunate coming together.

On a related subject: isn't it about time America got over the Cuba thing? The rest of the world seems to have moved on to other issues since the 60s but this last remnent of the cold war remains. What's the issue? Don't you like their cigars?

[Andy Velebil]

Lets lay out some facts from JS himself.

I had documents from the California Department of Alcohol Beverage Control proving my point. I showed her the documents and she sent me through to the secondary inspection area.

Why have this paper already printed out and in hand? Obviously he knew coming back with 5 cases was going to raise some eyebrows so he came prepared.

The people working in this area were definitely not friendly. They told us to “wait in our vehicles,” which we did for about 45 minutes before anyone spoke to us.

How is that not friendly. These Agents have no idea who you are and what else you may be smuggling. Do you think they should let you go for a walk and come back whenever you want?

He looked annoyed, and told me that they follow federal regulations. I simply and politely reminded him that the importation of alcohol into the state of California was a state matter and not federal.

“How do you know this?” he said.

“It’s according to the 21st amendment, among other things,” I told him.

I can only guess JS was also giving a bit of a superior attitude to the Agent from this dialog. That comes from personal experience btw. He was better off just saying he was a wine writer, etc., and there probably wouldn't have been any issues. It is obvious from his article he didn't do this. He pushed the Agents buttons and they pushed back and won. There is a way to say things without being provocative and in this case that doesn't appear to have happened.

A dog came over and went through the car and then the officer and a few of his colleagues checked it out as well. They were taking a long time. I was starting to get nervous.

Yes it takes a long time, this isn't a quick process. And why be nervous? The dog shows up and now your nervous...Ah, because you know what else is in the car. The best thing to do is just say what else is in there and make it easy for the Agents. From experience, 9 out of 10 times, if your honest from the beginning they will, at most, make you destroy the items your not supposed to have and send you on your way.

“Empty your pockets on the table,” he said. “Everything.” He added, in so many words, that if we didn’t, he would have to cavity search us. My nephew looked really freaked out at that point. I was in a daze.

We pulled our wallets, money, business cards, mobile phones, and everything else out of our pockets. He went through it all. And then he frisked all of us, one by one. I had forgotten to take a parking ticket out of my back pocket. ‘I thought I told you to take everything out of your pockets,” he said, taking the parking ticket and ripping it open. I assume he was looking for drugs.

Of course he was looking for drugs, that's what primarily comes through the border. He asked you to take everything out of your pockets and obviously you didn't. So he now has a couple of strikes going against him. In the eyes of a cop he is not following simple directions. Training and experience dictate when people are like this they are hiding things they shouldn't have...this sets of MAJOR alarms to any officer.

My CBP officer asked me to come to the car and he told me that I was in a lot of trouble. There were Cuban cigars. He also found three bottles of wine in my handbag that he said were concealed and I was trying to smuggle them into the states. I wished I hadn't accepted those three bottles of red from a wine merchant friend when I was loading my bag in the trunk. I didn't have time to taste them for a column on the region for our sister publication Wine Spectator. So I thought I could try them in the states.

Hmm, lets see...you have the piece of mind to print out the above papers saying as a non resident of California you can bring back 5 cases max of wine, yet you put 3 more bottles in your luggage so they are out of sight (lets not even get into the cigar thing). Obvously he knew he was now over the limit to bring back into the USA.

The whole thing was going badly. It really was a nightmare. I began to wonder if I was going to spend some time in jail and how much time and money it would take to prove my innocence as well as that of my nephew and friend. I apologized a number of times to the officer for forgetting to declare the two cigars and three bottles, but he would not accept. "You seem to know a lot about the law," he said. "And you should know better considering what you do. I can't let you off on this."

Ahh, now the tables have turned and that hole JS started digging earlier is getting much bigger. Yes, of course he knows the law. He gambled he wouldn't get caught and he did. But how can you prove your innocence when you clearly violated the law (3 extra bottles and 2 cigars )

I felt so humiliated.

why because you broke the law and got caught?

I am not sure what happened, or why it happened. I wonder how many other people go through similar experiences each day with U.S. Customs and Border Protection at the Tecate border, or anywhere else for that matter? I hope the officers enjoyed what they did to me and my friends, and I hope they appreciate the cigars as well.

Not sure what happened? Uh, dude again you broke the law and got caught
Oh and the reason they made you pour out the wine is we as law enforcement cannot keep food items in evidence due to possible spoilage issues. It is all destroyed. They gave you a receipt for the cigars which means they booked them into evidence and they didn't "appreciate" them.

Post by Derek T. » Thu Jan 14, 2010 1:39 am
James appreas to have been rather foolish when packing and considering what he should and should not have taken on his trip. The officers appear to have just been plain old nasty. An unfortunate coming together.

From personal experience over the past 15 years, JS was obvously trying to be a bit deceptive. This sets of big alarms to any officer and is going to raise their suspicions even more. Again, honesty is the best policy.....
Besides, Customs at the Mexico border finds drugs EVERYDAY in cars trying to cross the border, among other items. They deal with really nasty mean people that will do whatever they can to get across. So when you start being deceptive they aren't going to be your best friend.

but ... they obviously knew the outcome of forcing someone to open wine with a screw driver and had fun humiliating him that way

Roy, come on man. I've pushed corks into a bottle many times and never gotten sprayed by wine so I am not sure how that happened. But I highly doubt the Agents knew that would happen in advance and made him do it just to humiliate him. I can check with some work contacts, but I don't think wine smuggling occurs all that often from Mexico. It doesn't say if he had a cork screw or not, so I'll assume he didn't and that is why the screwdriver.

As for dumping it out, we always have the violator pour out their own liquids. Officers have no idea what exactly is in there, it could be labeled as wine and in fact be acid for all we know. That is why we have them pour it out. Officers don't want to get exposed to something that could potentially be a dangerous liquid....oh, and yes people do put dangerous liquids in normal everyday containers so they don't get caught with them. So this part is standard practice in Law Enforcement.

[Roy Hersh]

I am much more skeptical than you about that one point Andy. Knowing someone is really nervous as they could tell James was, obviously ... and handing them a screw driver and I bet it was quite intentional. Do you really think JS would travel to drink wine etc. in Mexico in hopes he'd find a cork screw there? Give me a break, man. Please ... if nothing else, say that the likelihood is that he had a corkscrew in his suitcase. I mean, seriously?!?!


Just a hypothetical: Say that someone in his shoes realized he was going to wear the wine and said to himself (as Peter would), 'no way I'm doing that ... ain't gonna happen.' So instead, he takes the three bottles and lets them drop out of his hands on the ground and they shatter and break and spray all over the ground.

What is the BP reaction? You're the law enforcement guy so please let us know which is most likely to happen next.

a. throw him to the ground and hog tie him or put on the cuffs really tight
b. shoot him point blank in the leg ... or heart
c. thank him for destroying the illicit wine and let him drive away
d. ask him angrilly why he would go and do such a thing
e. make him pick up every shard of glass and find water and bucket and have him scrub the pavement
f. threaten his life and tell him to lick it up
g. none of the above

[Frederick Blais]

The scariest part of the trip was being back in America. That I will never forget.

I always like those kind of comments. You're patriotic to the bone until you realize what is the system that protects your liberty :) "Good things" never come alone.

[Eric Menchen]

On a related subject: isn't it about time America got over the Cuba thing?

Absolutely. This isn't an issue I'm really knowledgeable about, but I bet the US sugar industry has at least a little bit to do with this these days.

BTW, I've regularly exceeded my quota for bringing stuff back into the US tax free. I fill out my customs declaration to the best of my memory and hand it over. The agent looks at it, sometimes asks a few questions, and has never wanted to deal with the paperwork to actually get the $10 extra tax I owe.

[Andy Velebil]

What is the BP reaction? You're the law enforcement guy so please let us know which is most likely to happen next.

a. throw him to the ground and hog tie him or put on the cuffs really tight
b. shoot him point blank in the leg ... or heart
c. thank him for destroying the illicit wine and let him drive away
d. ask him angrilly why he would go and do such a thing
e. make him pick up every shard of glass and find water and bucket and have him scrub the pavement
f. threaten his life and tell him to lick it up

I would have to go with option "B"...nothing better than just shooting someone for no reason (just joking people, relax)


Seriously though, I no longer travel with a corkscrew as they always get confiscated. And may I ask how often you travel with a corkscrew in your luggage?

But JS never states he has a corkscrew in his luggage and he never states that he asked the Agent to get it to use instead of the screwdriver, so I can only assume he didn't have one.

All I know is that every time I've traveled the hotel or friends I've stayed with all had a corkscrew, so there is no reason for me to take one along. Maybe this was the case with JS?????

[Peter W. Meek]

...every time I've traveled the hotel or friends I've stayed with all had a corkscrew...

Ah, but did they have a Durand?

[Peter W. Meek]

... said to himself (as Peter would), 'no way I'm doing that ... ain't gonna happen.'

Take my Laguiole? I don't think so! And in the future, I may be traveling with my brand new Durand. And given a 75 cl squirt-gun full of wine, I can think of some interesting uses.

By the way, I think you left out a BUNCH of entertaining options for the customs agent.

And, I do agree that Customs agents have unpleasant jobs. So do a lot of other people, and they manage to be pleasant people nonetheless. I suspect that there are a fair number of unpleasant jobs (that also have the power to make other people suffer) that attract certain kinds of people. Perhaps Customs agents are not a random subset of the general populace.

[Eric Menchen]

I have dealt with pleasant and unpleasant customs agents. In general they have an unpleasant job, and I'm guessing for the ones working the Mexican border it is even more so.

[Roy Hersh]

Seriously though, I no longer travel with a corkscrew as they always get confiscated. And may I ask how often you travel with a corkscrew in your luggage?

Frequently, yes. I have had mine taken away twice in carry on luggage before I had it forever indelibiy imprinted in my frontal lobes to "pack cork extraction device in checked baggage only." I now have a little alarm that goes off before putting my suitcase in the trunk of the car prior to departing for the airport if I have done otherwise OR started on my way to leaving the house without it, when necessary. I'd say that about 40% of the time I fly, I'll have a cork screw in my checked baggage.

Back to JS. Again, in Mexico where wine is scarce and the lack of a cork screw might result in having to use another implement, like, hmmm ... a screwdriver ... yeah, I would bet James had one with him and did not rely on one of his two relatives to remember.

Why wouldn't he ask that same pissed off BPmen (that just nailed him with several infractions of the law) to use one if it was in his luggage? Now that would be a question asked by one of the winners of the "Darwin award."



Peter mentioned:

By the way, I think you left out a BUNCH of entertaining options for the customs agent.

Not even close. I trimmed my list way way way back from what it was before I pressed the "submit" button.

[Moses Botbol]

Never push law enforcement's buttons. You'll get a response and it won't be to your benefit.

I carry a corkscrew in checked in luggage most of the time.

[Eric Menchen]

Purely hypothetical: If this had been Andy, would have pulled his tasting glass out of the car and tasted those wines before dumping?

[Eric Menchen]

I simply and politely reminded him that the importation of alcohol into the state of California was a state matter and not federal.

It is both.
You know, the more I think about it. The CBP could have stopped him from bringing in his 60 bottles. Yes, according to CA state law as a non-resident he can bring those in. But the federal law isn't so clear. For non-commercial purposes you can bring in what you want for personal consumption, and pay the tax. But the customs agent can confiscate from you, if in his or her judgment what you have doesn't appear to be for non-commercial purposes. And while James might be a wine critic, 60 bottles of the same thing would seem to raise a flag IMHO. I suspect James will give most of this away as gifts, which he is allowed to do, and perhaps drink some, and he could make that argument. But it is an argument, and the 21st amendment doesn't come into play. Instead it is the 10th, the supremacy clause, the concept of federalism ...

http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/travel/vacat ... g_duty.xml

While federal regulations do not specify a limit on the amount of alcohol you may bring back for personal use, unusual quantities are liable to raise suspicions that you are importing the alcohol for other purposes, such as for resale. CBP officers are authorized by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to make on-the-spot determinations that an importation is for commercial purposes, and may require you to obtain a permit to import the alcohol before releasing it to you. If you intend to bring back a substantial quantity of alcohol for your personal use, you should contact the port through which you will be re-entering the country, and make prior arrangements for entering the alcohol into the United States.

[Glenn E.]

Never push law enforcement's buttons. You'll get a response and it won't be to your benefit.

Word.