InkUnderNails

Really?

Fairbanks (FAI): TSA has passenger arrested for 2.5 grams of Marijuana (legal in AK)

sparkchaser

Word.

I get the TSA love letter all the time and my luggage was purchased brand new. Maybe the off-gassing of the plastics sets off their high tech detector thingy. Yeah, that must be it.

InkUnderNails

I almost never get the letter, maybe once every 150 trips. There are times when I suspect it has been checked, but even this is uncertain as things can move around in the bag.

My strategy is this: I use a separate shoe bag for my steel toe shoes which tend to get nasty in the factories where I work. Anything remotely suspicious goes in the bag including extension poles, certain tools, metal flashlight, etc. I place it right on top next to the bag that I use for all of my traveling cables and computer accessories. When they xray and can see something, it will all be together, right on top, easily checked and cleared. It seems to work.

MaximumSisu

There always seems to be enough resources to operate out of policy, however.

http://http://www.flyertalk.com/foru...l#post16670496 See post 55 by castro

studentff

Hopefully the end result in that case was not to invade an innocent family's home, slaughter their dogs out of sport, interrogate them handcuffed on the floor near the pools of blood, and try to trump up charges when they realize they screwed up.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berwyn_...ence_drug_raid

This case, and others too, are the reason I would never let a LEO into my home voluntary, can never be friends with a LEO, and would seriously question if I should take any action other than calling 9/11 and walking away if I saw a LEO bleeding in the street.

The entire police culture of the USA is corrupted by these incidents. Not a single police union official or police chief of an uninvolved agency stood up to condemn this raid, which makes every one of their leaders and officers complicit.

VelvetJones

No, this was a completely different incident. In this case, the drugs were picked up by the DEA and local police were not involved. The person arrested was in fact a drug dealer. Actually, in this case the cops did what they should have done. They watch the package, waited for the pickup, and then arrested the guy as he was getting in to his car. No SWAT team, no hail of gunfire, no innocent people wounded or killed. Local cops have gotten completely out of hand in this regard. Sending in SWAT teams for traffic violation warrants, suspicion of marijuana possession, etc. So far state legislatures have done nothing to curb these abuses. There should be common sense rules for SWAT use, like a felony warrant and actual reason for a raid, like a suspect who has barricaded themselves in a home or building. In the vast majority of these raids the suspect could have simply been arrested in their driveway or in the car.

tinman435

If the dog indicates there is somthing there that is they need for 'probable cause'. No need for a "random" check.

VelvetJones

Yes and no. It is more of a fine line than you think. Use of drug dogs at the border is one thing, but they're generally not allowed to just let them loose anywhere they see fit. Courts have ruled against random drug dog based searches when there was no other reason for the search. One example that comes to mind was a person stopped at a rest area off of an interstate. State troopers were walking drug dogs through the parking lot, randomly sniffing parked cars. The dog hit on a car, when the owner of the car came back the troopers demanded to search the vehicle. When they did, they found a small amount of pot. Case went to court but the evidence was tossed.

Chaos.Defined

ummm... we don't care?
Really... short of a bag of "leafy substance" plopping on the floor... Usually, the only time drugs come up is because they were hidden.. in such a way as to cause suspicion- in underwear or strapped to body...

castrobenes

Uhm...he was arrested by local cops not the DEA.

I could also point out that the airport cops didn't pursue this until he called in a complaint about his stolen medical marijuana. But most airport cops will respond to a call about drug paraphernelia, depending on the jurisdiction and the LEO they may or may not arrest.

My point is that DEA doesn't respond to these types of things.

castro

WillCAD

Um...

Would either of you care to address the original topic of this thread - that TSA seems to be illegally exceeding the limits of the administrative search doctrine by covertly searching checked bags for drugs with sniffer dogs and/or chemical tests?

mbstone

Who says they never found drugs (in the inner suitcases that were checked)?

Maybe found drugs just disappear.

castrobenes

My point is that the standard of proof for evidence in this thread is very weak.

I will address your statement. I have worked at airports for over 9 years in a lot of positions within TSA. I have never heard anyone in leadership encourage a TSO to look for drugs or illegal items. I have read each change to the SOP, and all of them have included the disclaimer to not look for anything outside TSA's mandate but to call the cops when it is found in the course of looking for something else.

I have done equipment maintenance on ETD machines. But I don't have access to the settings which determine the substances it detects. I wouldn't know how to switch them if I had access. I don't believe that the machines test for drugs because I have personally not seen many ETD alarms lead to drug arrests. I can't recall any actually.

I also have not seen many EDS alarms lead to drug arrests. Maybe 1 or 2 and the drugs were not the alarm they were found as a result of another search. Actually at my airport we find drugs about once every two to three weeks. Given the prevalence of drugs in the US, if the machines were looking for drugs we should expect to see many more drug arrests.

The whole argument is preposterous. Drugs are everywhere in the US. I see people dealing on my way into work. Every low income neighborhood has identifiable crack houses and areas to buy drugs. Cops could make arrests all day long if they wanted.

It makes no sense to create a dragnet at the airport especially when everyone knows that TSA searches your bags. It would be the most poorly thought out conspiracy ever. There are better ways to arrest drug users and you don't need to worry about covering anything up to do it.

I think that there is a good debate about the constitutionality of TSA searches, and also a good debate about the wisdom of TSA practices in general aside from the constitutional arguments. But this thread started because someone claimed to have met a guy who found drugs in his Russian doll style suitcases, and claims to have been searched every time. Seriously if this is your best argument, then you need to rethink your strategy.

The only person dumber than someone bringing drugs to an airport is the person who read this thread and thought it proved anything.

castro

thaliajen

I'm about losing it with the TSA but not over drugs. Seems that my "Flyertalk" tag, the yellow one I got when I won the Flyertalk contest for the race through Europe, makes the TSA at DTW more than a little angry. I had NO idea why I was constantly being pulled out of line and placing my hands on my head to traipse through the "machine". 2 weeks ago I had every bag in my possession searched.

A few months back I had a kindly TSA agent TELL me that I was "one of THOSE people" and pointed to my yellow tag. I don't know WHAT will stop the harassment but taking the tag off will be my last resort.

As for drugs- let them search. I have nothing to hide. Not sure if it's their jurisdiction, but hey, illegal is illegal. I think the moral of this thread should be, if you buy or use secondhand luggage- search it well!

FliesWay2Much

1. I don't have time to look them up now, but, the manufacturer's websites make the sales pitch that these devices can be set to detect narcotics. They sell them to police departments.

2. It does make sense if one's goal is to trump up one's value to society by taking criminals off the street. Your leadership loves to make known the number of drug arrests (all coincidental, of course) from bag searches and SPOTNik surveillance. Congress and a large percentage of the American People don't really care whether or not this type of "police activity" is legal. The TSA wants to arrest "bad" people at airports. They don't care how they do it or why they are "bad."

3. The easiest way to conduct narcotics trafficking at America's airports is to bribe as many clerks (including management clerks) as is necessary to get the job done. Based on those arrested, their going rate is pretty cheap.