Silk Road forums
Discussion => Shipping => Topic started by: vicur on October 09, 2012, 06:29 pm
-
Hi folks, recently I received a letter with a hole punctured through it and I was wondering if its done on purpose by the customs or post office? The content was very well packed and did not leak any odor (as for my human nose). Did anyone received such a punctured letter, too?
-
There was a thread about this not so long ago. Link anyone?
-
I've received a few international shipments with holes punched in them, but no other problems. It's done somewhere along the customs process, although I'm not sure if it's in the sending country or the receiving country.
-
I've received a few international shipments with holes punched in them, but no other problems. It's done somewhere along the customs process, although I'm not sure if it's in the sending country or the receiving country.
They just poke holes in your shit to probe? What if you had a painting or some shit inside?
-
You got Ion Mobility Scanned!
they poke holes in your letter with a machine that also sucks a little air in at the same time. The molecules of whatever travel up the tube and into a magnetic trap type thing, different molecules move through the tube at different speeds. Known compounds like drugs, chem weapons and explosives are registered in their system and your letter is compared against these.
-
You got Ion Mobility Scanned!
they poke holes in your letter with a machine that also sucks a little air in at the same time. The molecules of whatever travel up the tube and into a magnetic trap type thing, different molecules move through the tube at different speeds. Known compounds like drugs, chem weapons and explosives are registered in their system and your letter is compared against these.
That makes total sense. A quick little sniff job to detect whats inside without actually opening the package.
-
Oh yes, that's quite interesting this molecular sniffer. In such a case I may assume that the vendor made a good job in concealing the goodies.
-
Oh yes, that's quite interesting this molecular sniffer. In such a case I may assume that the vendor made a good job in concealing the goodies.
I bet they are looking for explosives and deadly substances (anthrax) over drugs. If they tagged every package that smelled like cannabis we'd never get mail. I'm sure that machine can smell drugs but, I bet its currently detecting explosives.
-
Glad my latest package didn't get 'sniffed' then cause when I opened it I could smell the product ever so faintly through the SINGLE vacuum sealed package.
Once you've had mcat you know what that shit smells like for life.
-
Interesting. We just received a package like this as well. Very curious. The sniffer sounds like a legit explanation, though.
.Hades.
-
I just read a study about IMS devices, and according to it, they are extremely effective at detecting liquid and powdered substances, but not very effective at all detecting marijuana.
-
Very interesting. Is this inside the US?
-
Also, can anyone chime in on how much pressure these things use? The hole is very small right? I wondering if some of the stronger inner packaging would be too dense to puncture. I don't see how they could go poking holes in glass or metal, or even high strength plastic containers. This would just fuck up too much regular mail with liquids or foods and what not. I am also interested in this study, I'm sure I can pull some other things up in the next few days as well, I'll try to remember to report back if I get the scoop.
-
Very interesting. Is this inside the US?
Our package was to the US, yes.
.Hades.
-
I found a hole in a legit ebay package few weeks back...
An item was in a computer parts bag and when i was about to open the package i notice a hole in the outside of it, so i opened it up and the hole had gone into the computer parts bag also......
-
bogan: have you has customs seize an order that address? Strange they were inspecting a computer part that closely.. maybe your address is watched?
-
Also, can anyone chime in on how much pressure these things use? The hole is very small right? I wondering if some of the stronger inner packaging would be too dense to puncture. I don't see how they could go poking holes in glass or metal, or even high strength plastic containers. This would just fuck up too much regular mail with liquids or foods and what not. I am also interested in this study, I'm sure I can pull some other things up in the next few days as well, I'll try to remember to report back if I get the scoop.
The hole itself was the size of a pea or a regular hole like done by office hole-puncher. But I didn't mention that the stuff (doesn't matter what) was first wrapped in a plastic foil, then sealed in a candy like metal wrapper,put in a cardboard sleeve and finally wrapped in a coal copy paper - in short it was invisible to x-rays and reasonably odor leak safe. Maybe this was the reason why they punctured the letter? Cause they could not see whats inside?
-
The hole itself was the size of a pea or a regular hole like done by office hole-puncher. But I didn't mention that the stuff (doesn't matter what) was first wrapped in a plastic foil, then sealed in a candy like metal wrapper,put in a cardboard sleeve and finally wrapped in a coal copy paper - in short it was invisible to x-rays and reasonably odor leak safe. Maybe this was the reason why they punctured the letter? Cause they could not see whats inside?
Ahh, quite possible. Maybe when it looks as if something is being hidden to the machine it goes through secondary inspection.
-
The hole in our package was not nearly the size of a standard hole punch. If we had to guess we'd say it was more the size of a 12ga earring stud (or like the tip of a ballpoint pen). That said, it wasn't like a pen stabbed it - it was very cleanly 'punched' and material that was in that spot was gone. Also, our package didn't contain any of the electronics foil or anything... so it wouldn't have been an issue of them not 'seeing' it.
I'd probably subscribe to the idea that was given of the electronic sniffer just getting a 'whiff' of what's inside.
.Hades.
-
I'm pretty sure that would be an illegal search if they simply punched a hole in a first class letter or package and used a sniffer. If they did that on a regular basis it would come out and there would be trouble for them. I also don't think they x ray packages. Incoming over the border, sure. You have no protections then but inside usa it takes a warrant to open and i'm pretty sure for an xray too. What they can do if they are suspicious is to present it to a drug dog along with some other mail. If the dog alerts to the one they suspect they get the warrant and open it, etc.
I think the holes are an accidental result of sharp wires, rods, and so on. I've seen letters and packages nearly destroyed as well as some that never made it.
-
This isn't an accidental hole... it's very clearly a 'punch' - the material that was once there, no longer is.
.Hades.
-
I've seen them on a pack too. Smaller than a normal hole punch. It went through the outer layer.....but not throught the inner lining. Two holes to be exact, I believe. It looked intentional.
-
I've had this happen before with an order of x. You could see straight through the letter. Thank god the packaging held up. :) I didn't open that package for a week in a half because of how much it scarred me. I thought they had put a small camera inside the envelope waiting for me to open it, and bust down my door. Looking back on it, it's pretty funny because it was only a point of x.
-
>This isn't an accidental hole... it's very clearly a 'punch' - the material that was once there, no longer is.
.Hades.
I have never gotten a letter with a neat hole punched right through it. I've gotten lots of mail from overseas which they could have legally opened and nada. I've gotten stuff in country that they might have been suspicious of, hundreds of small packages over the years and none of that. I think you are being paranoid.
Lets say it was intentional and they were looking for drugs. They find the drugs with this method. Now they are fucked legally, they did an invasive search without a warrant and its fruit of the poisoned tree so no evidence found will be admitted later on. Any warrant issued from that will be quashed when the facts come out. Yes, they could lie but i can't see this being used on a regular basis. It would come out sooner or later and be a scandal.
-
Not being paranoid at all, really. We got our stuff and LE didn't bust down the door... we're happy campers. Just chiming in to add the conversation saying that we received a package with the same little hole and that it absolutely 100% wasn't an accidental puncture. It was very neat and all the way through the package.
.Hades.
-
>This isn't an accidental hole... it's very clearly a 'punch' - the material that was once there, no longer is.
.Hades.
I have never gotten a letter with a neat hole punched right through it. I've gotten lots of mail from overseas which they could have legally opened and nada. I've gotten stuff in country that they might have been suspicious of, hundreds of small packages over the years and none of that. I think you are being paranoid.
Lets say it was intentional and they were looking for drugs. They find the drugs with this method. Now they are fucked legally, they did an invasive search without a warrant and its fruit of the poisoned tree so no evidence found will be admitted later on. Any warrant issued from that will be quashed when the facts come out. Yes, they could lie but i can't see this being used on a regular basis. It would come out sooner or later and be a scandal.
I think you're misunderstanding the power of the USA goverment when they call someone a terroist. Don't even get me started about the patriot act. You would be very shocked to see how quick people will allow invasion of their privacy for "protection".
Personally, i don't think they are looking for drugs when they poke these holes. For some reason in my gut, i truely belive they are looking for explosives and poisions. Also, most of the people mentioning that they recieved a hole in their package, or letter are reporting of it being delivered. We might have a conspiracy on our hands.
-
>This isn't an accidental hole... it's very clearly a 'punch' - the material that was once there, no longer is.
.Hades.
I have never gotten a letter with a neat hole punched right through it. I've gotten lots of mail from overseas which they could have legally opened and nada. I've gotten stuff in country that they might have been suspicious of, hundreds of small packages over the years and none of that. I think you are being paranoid.
Lets say it was intentional and they were looking for drugs. They find the drugs with this method. Now they are fucked legally, they did an invasive search without a warrant and its fruit of the poisoned tree so no evidence found will be admitted later on. Any warrant issued from that will be quashed when the facts come out. Yes, they could lie but i can't see this being used on a regular basis. It would come out sooner or later and be a scandal.
These days, I'm willing to believe that anything comeing from overseas could be subject to some sort of invasive search covered by the patriot act. Look at what they do to cars coming across the border, i wouldnt be surprised if this is somehow considered legal when dealing with customs.
-
I'm pretty sure that would be an illegal search if they simply punched a hole in a first class letter or package and used a sniffer. If they did that on a regular basis it would come out and there would be trouble for them. I also don't think they x ray packages. Incoming over the border, sure. You have no protections then but inside usa it takes a warrant to open and i'm pretty sure for an xray too. What they can do if they are suspicious is to present it to a drug dog along with some other mail. If the dog alerts to the one they suspect they get the warrant and open it, etc.
I think the holes are an accidental result of sharp wires, rods, and so on. I've seen letters and packages nearly destroyed as well as some that never made it.
I have never gotten a letter with a neat hole punched right through it. I've gotten lots of mail from overseas which they could have legally opened and nada. I've gotten stuff in country that they might have been suspicious of, hundreds of small packages over the years and none of that. I think you are being paranoid.
Lets say it was intentional and they were looking for drugs. They find the drugs with this method. Now they are fucked legally, they did an invasive search without a warrant and its fruit of the poisoned tree so no evidence found will be admitted later on. Any warrant issued from that will be quashed when the facts come out. Yes, they could lie but i can't see this being used on a regular basis. It would come out sooner or later and be a scandal.
Just because you have never experienced something, sunny1, doesn't mean that it doesn't happen. As far as x-raying goes, that is a non-invasive method of determining the contents of a letter or package and is therefore allowed without a search warrant.
Small holes are regularly punched in international letters and packages by an Ion Mobility Scanner, as explained by DrDeepWood.
- grahamgreene
-
Any idea which countries are using this technology?
I know US and AUS are confirmed to used them, probably most civilized countries have one. Its a very cheap method of analytics but really only used in detection of drugs and explosives. Its what they use at the airport in that device that blows puffs of air at you also.