Originally Posted by
Wiirachay
But in the US, not every domestic airport has customs.
Also, I think it would be sensitive to have baggage that needs to be cleared mixed with baggage that doesn't need to be cleared, as a domestic passenger could switch contents with an international passenger.
He'd have the wrong tags, though. And switching actual contents from bag to bag with another person before exiting the customs controlled area is going to get you a search with 100% certainty. We do know what suspicious behaviour is, and that's about at the top of the list.
I could see drugs and other items smuggled into the US if baggage were to be mixed.
How come this problem doesn't exist in the EU, then? Most drug smuggling here is done outside of airports because it's cheaper and there's less risk of being caught. And then most airport-based smuggling is done by swallowing rather than carrying in luggage.
What I find far worse than any possibility of smuggling (honestly I could care less about someone trying to sell drugs to people who like taking it) is that in all US airports that I've used, domestic arrival baggage is publicly accessible. That is, you can walk into the airport and take a random person's luggage home with you. In theory they should be checking if your luggage tags match up, but I've never seen anyone do that. Here at AMS (for instance, but this is common), your luggage always arrives in the arrival hall which is only accessible to those coming from a flight. It's still not perfect of course (perfect security doesn't exist, and attempting to achieve it will bankrupt you) but it's at least a lot better already.