nothing to declare

daisy dukes


Joined: 06/09/2008
Posts: 3815

Message Posted:
05/03/2009 11:26

Just out of curiosity, have you or anyone you know ever been stopped and searched at Ercan or Larnaca airport?



DD

No1Doyen


Joined: 04/07/2008
Posts: 16617

Message Posted:
05/03/2009 11:30

Yes, we were stopped twice. Once at the old Gecitkale airport and once at Ercan a few years ago. Mind you both times we had lots of boxes with us. They did'nt ask us to open them though, they just asked what was inside.

daisy dukes


Joined: 06/09/2008
Posts: 3815

Message Posted:
05/03/2009 11:37

I've never seen anyone being stopped or questionned, and ive definately never seen any sniffer dogs, and i was starting to wonder if that is why they call Cyprus the gateway to Europe, as it seems rather an easy place to traffic drugs and such like, please correct me if i'm wrong!



DD

fire starter


Joined: 19/06/2008
Posts: 3401

Message Posted:
05/03/2009 11:45

our tc friend was checked by the sniffer dogs at ercan returning from turkey.

my vet deals with all the sniffer dogs which work here.

they do exist!

daisy dukes


Joined: 06/09/2008
Posts: 3815

Message Posted:
05/03/2009 11:47

good to know firestarter! )

slimboyfat


Joined: 01/05/2008
Posts: 96

Message Posted:
05/03/2009 12:14

I've seen several people stopped at Ercan when I've been upstairs looking through the viewing gallery overlooking the luggage belts.

Kitty Kat Jac


Joined: 18/03/2008
Posts: 230

Message Posted:
05/03/2009 12:25

My boyfriend got stopped coming through Ercan by the sniffer dogs, made him strip down and searched everything. In the end they said have you been around any dogs, just thinking about it makes me laugh.

daisy dukes


Joined: 06/09/2008
Posts: 3815

Message Posted:
05/03/2009 12:47

HAHAHAHAHAHA Kitty....now that is hilarious!!



DD

Quarmby


Joined: 15/09/2008
Posts: 975

Message Posted:
05/03/2009 12:49

Witnessd a funny incident at Auckland airport last year a sniffer dog got very excited with a passenger's hand luggage and was asked to open the bag and out rolled 2 apples, which incidentally is illegal to import, the dog immediately set about devouring both apples. No charge, no evidence!

daisy dukes


Joined: 06/09/2008
Posts: 3815

Message Posted:
05/03/2009 12:52

i wonder if the dog was sacked! bless him



DD

Quarmby


Joined: 15/09/2008
Posts: 975

Message Posted:
05/03/2009 12:54

He did have a conted look on his face.

Macha


Joined: 18/01/2009
Posts: 650

Message Posted:
05/03/2009 13:02

daisy dukes,



The Turkish connecting airports are a bit more stringent than the TC ones - and the imposition of penalties depend on personal levels of authority and corruption.



Take the case of former TRNC agriculture minister Kenan Akin, who was caught with a suitcase full of smuggled Nokia mobiles at the Turkish end. He was allowed on his way after claiming he was carrying the case for a friend. He's now wanted by Interpol for murder...

daisy dukes


Joined: 06/09/2008
Posts: 3815

Message Posted:
05/03/2009 13:02

i've been watching Nothing To Declare on TV, and i gotta say, those australian border controllers are soooo strict, nothing seems to get past them...and the lil dogs are just so darn cute! lol



DD

Macha


Joined: 18/01/2009
Posts: 650

Message Posted:
05/03/2009 13:13

Sorry - two suitcases of smuggled phones:



“after the shots had died down, I went up to the balcony [where Akin had been photographed shooting at Solomou] and he was there,” Sadrazam said, adding that he could confirm that the photographs taken were of Akin.



Strongly inferring that Akin had at least tried to kill Solomou, and that he had done so without receiving orders, Sadrazam said “For Akin to take out his pistol and take aim and try to shoot at a person is a crime”.



Sadrazam believes Akin’s accusations about the order to shoot stem from Akin’s “efforts to escape international justice and pin the blame on others”. He also believed that Akin, by saying he had received orders from a military superior, was seeking to divert the blame from himself.



“It was only after he [Akin] was arrested in Istanbul in 2004 trying to smuggle two suitcases full of mobile phones into Turkey...



http://www.cyprus-mail.com

TRNCVaughan


Joined: 27/04/2008
Posts: 4578

Message Posted:
05/03/2009 13:46

Australian Customs & Excise were a joke when I used to visit on the container ship I worked on in the 1980's. The "Black Gang" always raided us when we arrived in Sydney (from Freemantle!!), they kept us from going ashore while they searched the ship from stem to stern and never found anything. As it happened, we never had anything to find. When I asked them why they raided us every time, the answer was "We had a reliable tip-off". I said "Eh? - but you never find anything, how reliable is that? What are you looking for?"

Their reply? "Sorry, we can't say".

Customs men, in my opinion, fall into 2 categories.

1. They are the same as traffic wardens - mean-spirited buffoons.

2. They are crooks looking for a backhander.

daisy dukes


Joined: 06/09/2008
Posts: 3815

Message Posted:
05/03/2009 13:49

really?? i must admit though, i think container ships could quite easily conceal stuff if they so wanted simply because thay are so large, plenty of nooks and crannies!



DD

TRNCVaughan


Joined: 27/04/2008
Posts: 4578

Message Posted:
05/03/2009 14:36

Hi DD,



Most ships of a size have "plenty of nooks and crannies". The fact is a container ship has less as all the cargo is sealed in containers to which the crew have no free/easy access. You could still conceal loads of stuff on a container ship but my point is the customs raided us continuously on the strength of a "reliable tip-off". The fact that they never found anything didn't call the reliablity into question? What harm could they do in telling us what they were looking for? We either had it or we didn't.

Also, as the ship had just come from an Australian port, Freemantle. any smuggled goods might well have already been offloaded before Sydney.

What hacked us off was the fact that we only had a day or so in Sydney and they wouldn't let us ashore until they completed their fruitless search. On one occassion we actually off-loaded all our containers before they were finished and we had to wait for them to leave so that we could sail. No shore leave - sailors not happy.

daisy dukes


Joined: 06/09/2008
Posts: 3815

Message Posted:
05/03/2009 15:18

well that sounds like a real nightmare....although all the ship raids that have been on the TV on Nothing To Declare, nothing is actually ever found, which i find rather surprising as i'm sure this the way most of the drugs and tobacco are transported...



DD

Stubs


Joined: 01/07/2008
Posts: 641

Message Posted:
05/03/2009 15:21

A few years ago after coming back from a visit from the USA my father in-law was just about to go through customs with his bags when one of the dogs approached him. It showed him some attention and him and the mother in law were taken into a side room and questioned.



My mother in law gave my father in law a slap to the head for farting as he was walking past the dogs.

daisy dukes


Joined: 06/09/2008
Posts: 3815

Message Posted:
05/03/2009 15:25

I do wonder about how many true harrowing ordeals people go through in customs, and how many were innocent/guilty...?



DD

Tiggy


Joined: 25/07/2007
Posts: 1994

Message Posted:
05/03/2009 16:43

msg 14. If you were stopped you would have two suit cases full of "false names"



Macha....AKA turd. always first with the breaking news.......(wind)

fire starter


Joined: 19/06/2008
Posts: 3401

Message Posted:
05/03/2009 17:47

i'm guilty!

still drinking my greek cypriot milk, and enjoying it.

Macha


Joined: 18/01/2009
Posts: 650

Message Posted:
05/03/2009 18:17

trncvaughan msg 17,



Having sailed with the Grey Funnel Line for a few years I can commiserate. It's even more frustrating when it's some tin-pot outfit supposedly under your sponsorship who are searching the ship.



Stil,l not as bad as a pirate attack which I never experienced but I know many MN guys have.

britvic



Joined: 05/09/2008
Posts: 3039

Message Posted:
05/03/2009 18:34

Daisy, I wonder what your motives are for asking?

daisy dukes


Joined: 06/09/2008
Posts: 3815

Message Posted:
05/03/2009 20:32

hehehe Britvic...don't worry, i'm not about to become an international drug smuggler!! I was simply asking because i've become rather addicted to the programme Nothing To Declare...and i was just looking for similar tales in real life!



DD :D