Citing new rules put in place in the wake of the attempted “printer cartridge” bombing story from October, the US is reporting a massive number of Cuban cigars being seized from people trying to import them from Europe.
Apparently large numbers of cigars have been flowing through Chicago’s O’Hare Airport from Europe for years, and customs had been regularly seizing about 2,000 cigars in the average two week span. That number is now more than 100,000 in a similar period, according to the Customs and Border Protection agency.
A spokesman for the agency said the anti-terror rules were making the nominally illegal trade much more difficult, and local cigar shop owners praised the mass seizures, as it was expected to dramatically increase their business.
It once again leaves unanswered, however, the question of whether the anti-terror law is doing anything remotely terror related, or if, as with so many other laws, evidence that it is restricting something totally unrelated is being passed off as proof of its effectiveness simply because no real evidence exists.
I wonder where all the Romeo and Julietas end up…???
Cigars on the terrorist list…hmmm… I guess you never know when you may get one of 'em exploding cigars, eh?
Okay, here's the deal: you could order Cubans online from suppliers in Switzerland who would package them and send them via air cargo on passenger planes. Since the printer cartridge farce the cargo rules have changed and the Swiss, for various reason, have to bundle their shipments and send their orders in bulk on regular cargo flights. Bigger pallets of illegal cigars = cigar buyers are out of luck when they get seized.
Now, the gov't could get a piece of the action by ensuring the destruction of the 'contraband': A) Gov't takes possession of the up to 2 million dollar shipments, B) Gov't puts the shipment up for auction to the highest bidder, C) Highest bidder then does as he wishes with the shipment- resell or destroy. Either way the government gets what it wants, plus cash. If the end result is to destroy the contraband, what better way than to put them in the hands of those who will SMOKE them, thereby destroying said contraband?
The embargo against Cuba is stupid anyway- why not just play stupid with the rules as well?