airport security

198321

I went to Thailand and Malaysia recently, and I love coffee with milk sometimes it is hard to keep milk in room, so I bought in Tesco milk powder - 500g.

Packed it in my bag and took my flight. Than I was wondering it might not be great idea to carry big pack of white powder in my bag. I got worried that somebody might stop me at the airport (Kuala Lumpur) and question it. Obviously they would do tests and see it is not any type of drug, so I wasn't worried about getting in trouble, but it is still not great to be questioned.

But nothing .. Even my bag wasn't opened. That was strange. I thought any type of this material (food, drugs, etc ..) can be seen on scanner.

Did I just get lucky?

Should I declare milk poweder and coffee as food as I travel?

Aint Eazy Being Cheezy

Wrap it in duct tape and hide it in the lining of your suitcase.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Of course they are food. You can get fined for not declaring milk or coffee powder in many countries.

Sport if not the AH style answer you wanted!

bboybaboy19

It's funny those shows about catching people with drugs or other illegal things. They make out that they're catching everything.

Obviously a guesstimate but I'd say they catch about 2~5% of what gets smuggled through the airport illegally. Drugs and otherwise.

LizzieJones

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057101149

Ice Storm

A friend of mine is diabetic and as such needs to bring needles etc. in her carry on luggage. She has a letter from her doctor explaining this but despite flying numerous times, she has never been questioned!

gozunda

198321 wrote: »

I went to Thailand and Malaysia recently, and I love coffee with milk sometimes it is hard to keep milk in room, so I bought in Tesco milk powder - 500g.

Packed it in my bag and took my flight. Than I was wondering it might not be great idea to carry big pack of white powder in my bag. I got worried that somebody might stop me at the airport (Kuala Lumpur) and question it. Obviously they would do tests and see it is not any type of drug, so I wasn't worried about getting in trouble, but it is still not great to be questioned.

But nothing .. Even my bag wasn't opened. That was strange. I thought any type of this material (food, drugs, etc ..) can be seen on scanner.

Did I just get lucky?

Should I declare milk poweder and coffee as food as I travel?

They likley would have used drug dogs or other for detection - long before you got your case from the hold. That said bringing in dried milk could still be a serious issue as it is food and if you did get searched going through customs.

The Diabolical Monocle

Necessity of powdered milk > Chance of getting a camera up your arse after spending a week in a disease ridden Thai jail.

UCDVet

Security is largely ineffective. I remember the first time I got my hands on a 'bump' key and effortlessly opened my parents front door/deadbolt. If a 13 year-old kid, with no experience, can effortless do that, what do you think the serious criminals can get away with?

Drug trafficking is a 300-400 BILLION dollar industry, according to wikipedia. People can't really understand that. That's more than the GDP of Ireland. It's not just like, 'Some guy who knows a guy'. No doubt, there are clueless criminals out there trying to smuggle things in and out of airports, but no amount of policing has ever been shown to effectively keep contraband out of a country.

Hell, just look at prisons. Look at the living conditions, they have no privacy, no access to the outside world, and they have thriving black markets for illegal items that are supposed to be impossible for them to get. Drugs, weapons, phones, whatever....they find a way. Despite having virtually no rights, and the ability to be searched by guards at any time, despite having virtually no place to hide the items, they manage.

Sunnyisland

As far as I know drug stops at airport is down to passenger profiling and surpecious or strange carry on by the person,it's also down to luck. Don't think you be so lucky if you were flying EI AL.

gozunda

realies wrote: »

As far as I know drug stops at airport is down to passenger profiling and surpecious or strange carry on by the person,it's also down to luck. Don't think you be so lucky if you were flying EI AL.

Don't forget about these

suicide_circus

You should have horsed a few lines of milk powder into while waiting at the gate.

Lapin

The Diabolical Monocle wrote: »

Necessity of powdered milk > Chance of getting a camera up your arse after spending a week in a disease ridden Thai jail.

I think I'd rather have the camera and a week inside with Bangkok's finest than drink coffee with powdered milk.

Ed_Stephens

Did you notice that they have milk in Asia?

Glock Lesnar

Forget the white powder, Thai prison isn't worth it

dirtyden

Why not just buy coffee in cafes while you are there? Or get some coffee and powdered milk over there.

Why worry about 'smuggling' it through customs? A pretty ridiculous risk to take, potentially giving yourself hassle for Tesco powdered milk.

gozunda

198321 wrote: »

I went to Thailand and Malaysia recently, and I love coffee with milk sometimes it is hard to keep milk in room, so I bought in Tesco milk powder - 500g.

Packed it in my bag and took my flight. Than I was wondering it might not be great idea to carry big pack of white powder in my bag. I got worried that somebody might stop me at the airport (Kuala Lumpur) and question it. Obviously they would do tests and see it is not any type of drug, so I wasn't worried about getting in trouble, but it is still not great to be questioned.

But nothing .. Even my bag wasn't opened. That was strange. I thought any type of this material (food, drugs, etc ..) can be seen on scanner.

Did I just get lucky?

Should I declare milk poweder and coffee as food as I travel?

Closely disguised 'I'm going to take something through customs' thread?

198321

dirtyden wrote: »

Why not just buy coffee in cafes while you are there? Or get some coffee and powdered milk over there.

Why worry about 'smuggling' it through customs? A pretty ridiculous risk to take, potentially giving yourself hassle for Tesco powdered milk.

I didn't really think about that, had connecting flight and on the boat to the island. Didn't want to waste any time looking for supermarket, but when I look back at it yeah I would not do it again and maybe drink tea instead?

The point isn't how to take stuff through the customs and hide it. I didn't hide it and still nothing so I guess it is pretty easy for sinister people to hide stuff and get through customs easily.

Than again I guess my flight was Dublin > Bangkok (with overstop) and I wasn't really considered as risk as only dumb person would smuggle stuff from Dublin to Bangkok (usually it is other way around).