Don’t we have customs officers at airports any more?

[EnFinale]

I’m a fairly regular traveller and these days it seems like once you’ve collected your luggage there simply aren’t any customs officers at airports any more. You simply walk on through to the exit! No spot checks, nothing.

Is it just me who’s noticed this?

I think it's partly due to:

1. Focusing on flights from certain originating countries (drug smuggling);

1. Using CCTV to watch arriving passengers and identify any acting suspiciously before they get to the Customs Hall, and then pulling them over when they come through.

It's probably more productive than just pulling random people over.

Are you flying domestically/from EU countries? There are always border checks on international (outside EU) flights.

They're there (two of my cousins do the job), but they're behind the scenes. Not sure if it's the case at all airports but my usual one has one of those one way windows that looks like a mirror.

I see plenty of them - it is targeted though, so if I come through at the same time as certain flights you see loads of customs officers

I came back from Asia last week. When we walked through customs at Heathrow the two officers didn’t glance up from their phones.

I was asked where I had flown back from a few weeks ago. When I said Ibiza I was waved through. I do wonder if it had been somewhere else whether my luggage would've been searched.

A lot of it is targeted now and intelligence-led plus stuff goes on behind the scenes that passengers aren't aware of.

We arrived at Gatwick at 7.30am on a Sunday a couple of weeks ago, from a popular US tourist destination. There was a couple who had been pulled aside by about 3 customs officers when we went through, but I think they were perhaps still expecting a more "interesting" flight.... there were at least 25 officers lining the "Nothing to Declare" channel. All standing there in way that makes you instantly feel guilty, despite being perfectly innocent! Agree with others, it's pretty targeted these days.

I think now they watch everyone on CCTV while they're in the passport queue and then pull them over at/after the desk. I've seen officers waiting there and pulling people aside.

Don't forget that all your luggage has been X-rayed by the airport you came from, so if they saw something suspicious for smuggling not terrorism, they could well alert your destination airport.

There's an exhibition about this sort of smuggling in the Seized exhibition at one of the museums in Liverpool and that says it's about the person's demeanor, where they've come from and maybe other travel details such as length of trip and who you're with. So if you don't want to look suspicious, don't go to Colombia on your own for three days and if you want to import drugs, best do it during a week's family holiday to the Costa del Sol.

So if you don't want to look suspicious, don't go to Colombia on your own for three days and if you want to import drugs, best do it during a week's family holiday to the Costa del Sol.

Top Tips from MN.

Depends where you’re coming from! Manchester when a flight arrives from certain countries is full of them on the sniff for cheap fags.

I'm surprised we've never been questioned about our tobacco 'importation'.

DP doesn't smoke anymore and DF sadly is no longer with us, but for a good few years, we used to regularly holiday in the Canary Islands and bring back the maximum allowance for two adults, which technically wasn't allowed because mine wasn't for personal use and DF did give me the money for it.

If I had been stopped, I would have just said it was a gift, because obviously I would have instantly failed the 'if this really is for you, please roll a cigarette and smoke it' test, as I have never smoked or rolled a cig in my life.

Saying that, we have friends who live in Spain near the Gibraltar border and it is common for people who live the area to go into Gib to buy their much cheaper fags and booze - eg I got a bottle of gin from the airport shop for a fiver that sells for £35 in the UK.

Once we all drove into Gib from Spain and on the way back out, the customs officer more or less took apart our car, looking for illicit tobacco and were disappointed to find that between 5 adults we had 2 small packs of rolling tobacco. Because our friends had family in Gib, they crossed over nearly every week so had no reason to stock up as they could just buy what they wanted as and when.

DH flew regularly into Newcastle for work over the last couple of years. His colleague (non English, Pacific Islands but UK resident) was regularly stopped by customs (DH was then questioned when he stopped to wait for his colleague).

I've been met and questioned on the jetway, so not even in the terminal building! Where the flight originated plays a big part.

I've only been questioned once - and they asked if I had cigarettes which I didn't have. I agree with other posters, they are just more targeted now. I was surprised I was questioned tbh I came back from a state where cigarettes are just as expensive as they are here.

On the other hand, they are pretty hot on questioning people about £££££ leaving the country.

The whole thing is now much more sophisticated that customs officers standing at the nothing to declare looking for shifty people.

Which doesn't stop me feeling guilty for no reason walking through

Youd be hard pressed to exceed your limits as they stand even by the weight alone in your luggage.

As we are in the EU current guidlines are
800 cigarettes
400 cigarillos
200 cigars
1 kg of smoking tobacco
110 litres of beer
10 litres of spirits
90 litres of wine
20 litres of fortified wine e.g. port or sherry.
Exceptions to these allowances apply to travellers arriving from:

Estonia: Tobacco allowances are – 200 cigarettes or 250g of smoking tobacco.
Bulgaria, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia where you are allowed 200 cigarettes.

After Brexit I expect it will be back to the limits we have for outwith EU travel ie 1 litre of spirits and 200 cigarettes. So more customs officers to check then

There are very few Officers these days. I seem to recall something like 300 total for the whole South East!

Did you see the "Smuggled" programme on TV. Rather more "Immigration" than Customs but all four illicit entrants [all British] evaded controls by pretty simple means

@EnFinale

@ratspeaker

After Brexit I expect it will be back to the limits we have for outwith EU travel ie 1 litre of spirits and 200 cigarettes. So more customs officers to check then

"Falls about laughing"

Last time I was aware, the lower 'outside EU' limits apply to the Canary Islands or Gibraltar, because the duty levels and hence prices there are much cheaper than mainland Spain etc.

They are definitely there. Last plane I came on, it felt like every single Male traveller under about 50 had been pulled aside and were unpacking their cases. The families breezed through.

Not into the UK, but when DH picked his case up a couple of years ago, it had a red tag on it. He got pulled over and searched - and quickly let go - it was school uniform, shampoo for me (6 months worth), and a massive hdmi and ethernet cable. I can sort of see why it was investigated, although if it really was going go to boom, I'm surprised it wasnt inspected before he flew!