Customs Swat team
 

Leaving MIA for EZE last week, there was a US customs swat team in the Jetway. Complete with dog, weapons and flak vests. They seemed concerned with what was leaving the US. Does anyone know what they were looking for?

Seen that a few times at LAX. Usually they just stand there. Once they asked the passenger in front of me how much cash he carries.

Please continue to follow this thread in the TS/S Forum.
Thanks..
Obscure2k
TravelBuzz Moderator

Usually undeclared cash or cash equivalents exceeding $10,000. It's a dog and pony show meant to intimidate passengers except for those situations where they are looking for a particular individual who has been flagged by a cross checking of the passenger manifest or booked passenger lists with government blacklists of some sort or another.

Clearly the use of a SWAT team indicates that they were looking for a highly armed individual, a common situation in the secure area of an airport. :rolleyes:

What a fine waste of money; I assume they get extra cash for "dangerous" (i.e. in SWAT costume) assignments.

Just shut up and comply, citizen.

.... or off to the Stalinistic gulag for you, comrade. :(

We will go together, when political dissent is finally stamped out and those of us who refuse to be sheeple stand up to assert our rights.

I would be really surprised if what the OP saw was actually a SWAT team. CBP does have those in a few locations, but as far as I know, they are all land border ports. What use would there be for one at an airport? Weapons, a dog, and body armor do not indicate a SWAT team. Black pajamas and automatic rifles do.

The OP doesn't mean a real SWAT team -- but the OP is talking about the DHS agenda and practice that puts around more "heavy"-looking agents to put on a show of force like that many people get when seeing a SWAT team.

This is part of a concerted program by DHS to try to "scare the bad guys". It's a dog and pony show meant to intimidate -- intimidate whom, who knows :rolleyes: -- more than anything else nowadays.

Me
I have been harassed by the TSA about cash I had, they actually counted it.
Welcome comrade

What was "heavy-looking" about the officers in this case? The dog? It was likely a currency-sniffing dog that was being used to find cash. The weapons and body armor? CBP Officers always have those. Almost any law enforcement officer does.

You aren't looking for an answer, you know.

Another example of security theater.

Either that, or the armor is an admission that DHS knows it cannot rely on itself to keep guns and knives out of airplanes, and that running into an armed individual is more likely than on the street, at immigration, etc.

Eh, baloney! The fact that they were wearing body armor means nothing of the sort. They work in and out of the sterile area. You can't expect them to go change as they go back and forth. Besides, say they do seize a large wad of cash...then they'd be carrying it around unprotected. CBP Officers wear their body armor under their shirts. You can't even see it unless you really look. Like almost every cop in America, when the uniform goes on, the vest goes on.