Silk Road forums
Discussion => Shipping => Topic started by: gambino on July 31, 2012, 12:49 am
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I've had more than one international letter envelope delivered with a small one-eighth inch hole punched in the top, front and back. Anyone know who does it and why? Is it the foreign post, USPS, Customs, or someone else?
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Your fucked mate! If i was you I would pack your shit and disappear! Serously you wanna be free or locked up?
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Be nice Hoffa.
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Why did you chuckle to yourself Lim??
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your pack got scanned with an ion mobility spectrometer
+1.
I`m guessing it means you live in Australia or New Zealand. They took a sample of whatever was inside, they mostly look for prominent drugs like Cocaine, Heroine/etc. If its something like 25i, which is underground or a new designer drug they let it go.
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your pack got scanned with an ion mobility spectrometer
REALLY? Holy shit I've had that happen before! That's fucked up. I had the same thing happen to me last month. I'm a google that shit. Thanks for making my brain hurt again Shannon. I guess you don't need a warrant to poke a hole in a box?
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Particle scans in the US? Though they do have the machines, they don`t use them much compared to places like Australia & New Zealand where they scan and take a sample from every suspicious package.
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nah, since it's not really opening it up
little light reading straight from the enemy
https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/187111.pdf
https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/178913.pdf
second one is good shit and has info on dogs too although most of it isn't about drugs
Thanks for the links mate, good reading
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your pack got scanned with an ion mobility spectrometer
My initial thought, yea sure... good thing they have a portable flux capacitor to power the beast and then I realized, oh shit, he wasn't making it up...
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your pack got scanned with an ion mobility spectrometer
Yes, I was imagining that it was some sort of trace detection equipment but wasn't sure. If this is the case, then the machine was defeated by competent packaging.
One particular particular package may or may not have contained several grams of MDMA and ketamine in baggies and single vacuum sealed. It may or may not have come from Spain. And yes, I'm in the U.S., not Aus or NZ.
This just goes to show why vacuum sealing and otherwise competent packaging is so important.
I would be interested to see other people report in this thread if/when they receive packaging that has been hole-punched. It would be interesting to see if we could make some generalizations about which packages are getting inspected this way and which aren't.
[@Vinnyg007: They don't need a warrant to inspect people or packages crossing an international border into the U.S. They can punch a hole in it or open it and search every nook and cranny, all without a warrant or probable cause. It's simply a matter of practicality -- due to the sheer volume of mail coming into the U.S. -- that they rely on machines like x-ray or trace detection. Now, internal U.S. Mail, that's a different story.]
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Had these holes front and back on a package from Germany.
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'It has already begun'
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The ones I buy, already got a hole in it. :) :)
I thought it was for sealing .
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Why did you chuckle to yourself Lim??
I also chuckled. hyuck hyuck hyuck
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DAMN! i was reading this thinking, "I'm glad that's never happened to me", when i realized it did! on my last order!
At the time i thought it was just the way the packaging was made, but thinking back on it there's no way. Thank God my vendor's packaging was so legit. :P Kinda sketchy, but makes me feel better knowing that a package from the vendor in question can withstand such scrutiny. :D
Also, there was a bit of a delay for the package in customs.. I wonder if it's associate with that..?
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I've has this happen to two seperate orders - one of ephedrine, and one of viagra. Wasn't worried about detection, was more worried about the embarrassment of trying to explain to my friendly mailman why it looked like I needed both ephedrine and viagra. :-X Another man doubting your manliness is a fate worse than death. :P
But yes, it's quite common with international mail - nothing to worry about unless your vendor's packaging is incredibly sloppy.
- grahamgreene
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Also, if my memory serves me the hole was closer to 1/4, maybe slightly larger..
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This is fascinating. Thank you for this information I was completely unaware of this procedure and application of technology prior to reading your article.
For comparison sake when you say that you have nothing to worry about and/or that it is quite common/normal consider that for the past 7 years I have been sending mail to Australia from an country in SEA totally legit legal mail. (although sometimes I have included a small amount of foreign currency but very minimal amounts <$150USD usually around $50USD I guess that is illegal\). This is always in A4 Document envelopes. Always a handwritten name and address. Sometimes (more than 10% of the time) there has been like a souvenir pencil or eraser or crappy little gimmick as a gift for a friends kid or relative, thus making the package unusually shaped or have a bump indicating more than documents present. That said I have always labelled the contents properly and as thoroughly as I can ie: Documents, card, eraser gift.
Although I cannot be 100% sure that none of my envelopes have been opened I can be sure that they have never been hole punched. So if you are getting this hole punch happening on a regular basis (although I am very inexperienced in this arena) this would indicate to me that you are being targeted, regularly scanned, perhaps on a mail watch list of some kind and in all likelihood under surveillance.
(Its never nice when someone says something like that to you so sorry not trying to make you paranoid). I must have mailed a figure of more than 300 mails to Australia and never had this. sometimes my packages do look suspicious.
Is it possible that they are using this method more frequently now as by your description it would seem a very high volume rapid way of testing suspicious mail. (punch it, note the number, let it go on. If positive pick it out at a later stage in transit after testing a large volume all at once so as to not slow down mail? or how does it work?)
On an off thread topic note (but related to this post) I have seen many complaints on the feedback section of many sellers lodged by buyers in Australia complaining about the time taken to receive their package. trying to suggest that it is the sellers fault. In all my mail to Aus I can assuredly say that Australia has a very slow system (I am sure others here know the reasons why, but I do not). I used to mail EMS but it was not worth the fee. EMS would take 7 working days and sometimes 10! Normal Mail always takes 12 days minimum and sometimes it has taken 21 days. So dont blame your sellers until you have waited 3 weeks
What is the selection criteria for hole punching? over other forms of investigation.
(and why so slow? or I can hold that one for another thread)
On another note I have several hundred Australian,NZ and UK stamps (some modern (20 years or so and some as old as 1930s ) that have hole punches and no postage print.
I always thought (i know this sounds daft) that they did it instead of post stamping the stamp (as an alternative to post marking/stamping the revenue value as used on the stamp).
These stamps are very old and new so before the times of these types of tech. On the off and unlikely chance they are not punched on teh stamp or postage paid area?