A Cautionary Tale if Your Pipes Have Ivory

[tky58]

With respect to our brother's across the "pond", Americans have a long history (238 years) of disliking high handed government interference.

This system that caught these teenage boys is fraught with bureaucratic idiocy. The professional ivory smuggler is not going to deal with teenagers as mules. He is going to bury 50 pounds of the stuff in a shipping container of something else and run it through a busy seaport. He is going to take his time and have all his papers in order so as not to raise suspicion. Most of the time, customs will not bother with something so complicated.

However 2 kids who told customs they had the items before they went into Canada and declared them upon return. That is just easy picking for the bored customs agent who would rather be catching all those illegal Canadians slipping into the US in search of a better life. (I pull my tongue out of my cheek and not go further in fear of becoming political)

Truth is I appreciate our border agents and believe they are trying to do a good job in a tough situation. Bureaucratic idiocy is systemic and given a choice most bureaucrats will want to do the right thing.