Dictionary:

smuggle

  (smŭg'əl)

1. To import or export without paying lawful customs charges or duties.
2. To bring in or take out illicitly or by stealth.

To engage in smuggling.

[Probably Low German smukkeln, smuggeln or Middle Dutch smokkelen.]

verb

1. To import or export secretly and illegally: bootleg, run. Idioms: run contraband. See crimes, move/halt.
2. To bring in or take out secretly: sneak, spirit. See move/halt.

For more information on smuggling, visit Britannica.com.

There are two levels on which smugglers appear in folk tradition. On the first level, their tricks and exploits are a topic for storytelling; local history recalls routes they followed, places where they fought the Revenue men; local legend alleges they had secret tunnels. On the second level, people wanting to explain away a supernatural tradition often claim it was encouraged, or even invented, by smugglers to frighten people away from churchyards and lonely houses where they hid contraband. While it is possible that ‘smugglers' fakelore’ did sometimes occur, no references to it have been found in contemporary documents; anecdotes about it only appear much later, and are couched in general terms. They sound like folklore themselves.

The criminal offense of bringing into, or removing from, a country items that are prohibited or upon which customs or excise duties have not been paid.

Smuggling is the secret movement of goods across national borders to avoid customs duties or import or export restrictions. It typically occurs when either the customs duties are high enough to allow a smuggler to make a large profit on the clandestine goods or when there is a strong demand for prohibited goods, such as narcotics or weapons. The United States polices smuggling through various federal agencies, including the U.S. Customs Service, the U.S. Border Patrol, the U.S. Coast Guard, and the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Federal law prohibits the importation of a number of items that are injurious to public health or welfare, including diseased plants or animals, obscene films and magazines, and illegal narcotics. Importation of certain items is prohibited for economic or political purposes. For example, the United States bans trade with Cuba, which means that Cuban cigars may not be legally imported. This restriction inevitably results in the smuggling of Cuban cigars into the United States. Federal law also bans the export of military weapons or items related to the national defense without an export permit.

In addition, federal law prohibits the importation of goods on which required customs or excise duties have not been paid. Such duties are fixed by federal law to raise revenue and to influence commerce.

Travelers at international borders can properly be stopped by customs agents, required to identify themselves, and asked to submit to a search. To combat smuggling, customs agents have the authority to search an individual and his baggage or any packages or containers sent into the country. Within the United States, police cannot conduct searches unless they have a warrant, probable cause to suspect unlawful activity, or the consent of the individual being searched. Such requirements do not apply to border searches. Customs agents have a right to search anyone at a border for no reason at all, although they ordinarily only conduct extensive and thorough searches of individuals who arouse suspicion. Law enforcement agencies have developed "drug courier profiles" that help customs agents identify and question individuals who are likely carriers of narcotics.

Smugglers use two methods to move goods. One is to move cargoes undetected across borders. Smugglers move illegal narcotics from Mexico into remote areas of the Southwest United States using airplanes, trucks, and human "mules." These "mules" walk across an isolated region of the Mexico-U.S. border with backpacks full of illegal narcotics.

The other method is one of concealment. For example, a smuggler may hide illegal narcotics in unlikely places on ships or cars, in baggage or cargo, or on a person. Some drug couriers swallow containers of narcotics to avoid detection of the drugs if searched.

In the event that a traveler possesses anything that he did not declare to customs inspectors, or any prohibited items, he can be compelled to pay the required duties, plus penalties, and he can also be arrested. Customs agents can seize the illegal goods.

Federal law imposes harsh sanctions for the offense of smuggling. An individual can be convicted merely for having illegal goods in her possession if she fails to adequately explain their presence. Anyone who is guilty of knowingly smuggling any goods that are prohibited by law or that should have come through customs, or who receives, buys, sells, transports, or aids in the commission of one of these acts can be charged with a felony and can also be assessed civil penalties. The merchandise itself, as well as any vessel or vehicle used to transport it, can be forfeited to the United States under forfeiture proceedings.

See: drugs and narcotics; search and seizure.

A skirmish with smugglers from Finland at the Russian border, 1853, by Vasily Hudiakov.

Smuggling, also known as trafficking, is the sneaking of goods or persons past a point where prohibited, such as out of a building, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of the law or other rules.

There are various motivations to smuggle. These include the participation in illegal trade, such as drugs, illegal immigration or emigration, tax evasion, bringing banned items past a security checkpoint (such as airline security), providing contraband to a prison inmate, the removal of classified documents from a government or corporate office, or the theft of the item(s) being smuggled.

Smuggled goods and people

Illegal drug trafficking, and the smuggling of armaments (gunrunning), as well as the historical staples of smuggling, alcohol and tobacco, are widespread. The profits involved in smuggling goods appears to be extensive. It has been reported that smuggling one truckload of cigarettes within the United States leads to a profit of US $2 million. [1]

With regard to people smuggling, a distinction can be made between people smuggling as a service to those wanting to illegally migrate and the involuntary trafficking of people. An estimated 90% of people who illegally crossed the border between Mexico and the United States are believed to have paid a smuggler to lead them across the border. [2]

People smuggling can also be viewed by some in some circumstances as a form of rescue. During the years while some US states allowed slavery while others did not, many slaves moved north via the underground railroad. Similarly during the holocaust, Jews were smuggled out of Germany by such as Algoth Niska.

A related topic is illegally passing a border oneself.

See also illegal immigration.

Legal Definition

Smuggling methods

With regard to crossing borders we can distinguish concealment of the whole transport or concealment of just the smuggled goods:

• Avoiding border checks, such as by small ships, private airplanes, through overland smuggling routes and smuggling tunnels. This also applies for illegally passing a border oneself, for illegal immigration or illegal emigration. In many parts of the world, particularly the Gulf of Mexico , the smuggling vessel of choice is the go-fast boat.
• Submitting to border checks with the goods or people hidden in a vehicle or between (other) merchandise, or the goods hidden in lugguage, in or under cloths, inside the body (see body cavity search and balloon swallower), etc. Many smugglers fly on regularly scheduled airlines. A large number of suspected smugglers are caught each year by airport police worldwide. Goods and people are also smuggled across seas hidden in containers, and overland hidden in cars, trucks, and trains. A related topic is illegally passing a border oneself as a stowaway. The high level of duty levied on alcohol and tobacco in Britain has led to large-scale smuggling from France to the UK through the Channel Tunnel.

For illegally passing a border oneself, another method is with a false passport (completely fake, or illegally changed, or the passport of a lookalike).

See also mule (smuggling).

History

Smuggling has a long and controversial history, probably dating back to the first time at which duties were imposed in any form.

In Britain, smuggling became economically significant at the end of the 18th century, although of course it was carried out to a greater or lesser extent prior to this high-water mark. The high rates of duty levied on wine and spirits, and other luxury goods coming in from mainland Europe at this time made the clandestine import of such goods and the evasion of the duty a highly profitable venture for impoverished fishermen and seafarers. In certain parts of the country such as the Romney Marsh, East Kent, Cornwall and East Cleveland, the smuggling industry was for many communities more economically significant than legal activities such as farming and fishing. The principal reason for the high duty was the need for the government to finance a number of extremely expensive wars with France and the United States of America.

In North America, smuggling in colonial times was a reaction to the heavy taxes and regulations imposed by mercantilist trade policies. After American independence in 1783, smuggling developed at the edges of the United States at places like Passamaquoddy Bay, St. Mary's in Georgia, Lake Champlain, and Louisiana. During Jefferson's embargo of 1807-1809, these same places became the primary places where goods were smuggled out of the nation in defiance of the law. Like Britain, a gradual liberalization of trade laws as part of the free trade movement meant less smuggling. Smuggling revived in the 1920s during Prohibition, and drug smuggling became a major problem after 1970.

In modern times, as many first-world countries have struggled to contain a rising influx of immigrants, the smuggling of people across national borders has become a lucrative extra-legal activity, as well as the extremely dark side, people-trafficking, especially of women who may be enslaved typically as prostitutes.

Human trafficking

Main article: Trafficking in human beings

Trafficking in human beings, sometimes called human trafficking, or sex trafficking (as the majority of victims are women or children forced into prostitution) is not the same as people smuggling. A smuggler will facilitate illegal entry into a country for a fee, but on arrival at their destination, the smuggled person is free; the trafficking victim is enslaved. Victims do not agree to be trafficked: they are tricked, lured by false promises, or forced into it. Traffickers use coercive tactics including deception, fraud, intimidation, isolation, threat and use of physical force, debt bondage or even force-feeding with drugs to control their victims. Whilst the majority of victims are women, and sometimes children, forced into prostitution, other victims include men, women and children forced or conned into manual or cheap labor.

Due to the illegal nature of trafficking, the exact extent is unknown. A US Government report published in 2003, estimates that 800,000-900,000 people worldwide are trafficked across borders each year. [3] This figure does not include those who are trafficked internally.

Etymology

The word probably comes from the Common Germanic verb smeugan (Old Norse smjúga) = "to creep into a hole". Other sources say it comes from the word smook (fog) which was used in West Flanders.

Economics of Smuggling

See also

• Smuggling tunnel
• Smuggling in literature
• Rum-running
• Illegal drugs trade
• The Yogurt Connection
• Trafficking in human beings
• Contraband
• Snakehead (gang)
• Gunrunning
• People smuggling
• Fugitive (game)
• Snowblind (book)

External links

• Smuggling in 18th and 19th century Britain
• Smuggled Goods and Products information
• King's Cutters and Smugglers 1700-1855, by E. Keble Chatterton, from Project Gutenberg
• Smuggling on Romney Marsh, England

Organizations working against Trafficking:

• Ansar Burney Trust - working in the Middle East

Further reading

Joshua M. Smith, Borderland Smuggling: Patriots, Loyalists and Illicit Trade in the Northeast, 1783-1820 (Gainesville, University Press of Florida, 2006).vls:Blauwn

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Dansk (Danish)
v. tr. - smugle, drive smugleri
v. intr. - drive smugleri

Nederlands (Dutch)
smokkelen

Français (French)
v. tr. - faire passer (qch) clandestinement, faire du trafic de, faire passer (qch) en fraude ou en contrebande
v. intr. - faire de la contrebande

Deutsch (German)
v. - schmuggeln

Ελληνική (Greek)
v. - διακινώ λαθραίως, διεξάγω λαθρεμπόριο, εισάγω ή εξάγω λαθραία

Italiano (Italian)
contrabbandare

Português (Portuguese)
v. - contrabandear, passar clandestinamente

Русский (Russian)
провозить контрабандой, заниматься контрабандой, тайно проносить

Español (Spanish)
v. tr. - pasar, meter de contrabando
v. intr. - contrabandear, hacer matute

Svenska (Swedish)
v. - smuggla

中文（简体） (Chinese (Simplified))
偷运, 私运, 走私

中文（繁體） (Chinese (Traditional))
v. tr. - 偷運, 私運, 走私
v. intr. - 走私

한국어 (Korean)
v. tr. - 밀수입하다, ~을 몰래 가지고 가다
v. intr. - 밀수입하다, 밀항하다

日本語 (Japanese)
v. - 密輸入する, そっと持ち込む, 密出国させる, 密航させる

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(فعل) يهرب " ألبضائع "‏

עברית (Hebrew)
v. tr. - ‮הבריח, הגניב, ייצא וייבא‬
v. intr. - ‮הבריח, ייצא וייבא‬

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