do the UK customs check everyone when you fly in with your luggage from a european country?
liquid_metalx asked:
I might be going to Spain, and want to bring back some cigarettes, more than is allowed, do the UK customs check everyones luggage ?
I might be going to Spain, and want to bring back some cigarettes, more than is allowed, do the UK customs check everyones luggage ?
Theoretically, there is no limit to the amount you are allowed as long has you have paid duty in a EU country and have a receipt.
I’ve flown back from a European country to find no-one in the customs hall at all, but they had their knives out on a flight from Tenerife.
They do random checks, they do not look at everyone.
The do have drug and explosive sniffing dogs at baggage handling as well as x ray machines and electronic sniffers, but they are not used all the time on all baggage.
It tends to depend on the resort you are flying back from, and also the country. UK customs use many different passenger profiling techniques and tend to concentrate on passngers matching these profiles.
Thanks to the EU, you can usually bring in a lot of ciggies etc without raising any attention with UK customs.
No, but they are highly trained to pick up on anyone acting, or looking suspicious, so BEWARE!! Your body language might just give you away.
No, they do random tests. A lot of times you walk by and there is no one there. They do have the dogs walking around in the luggage area.
They don’t check everyone, but they do random checks with their FAST (Flexible Anti Smuggling Teams). They also have folks in casual clothes watching the luggage belts for suspicious behaviour, so if you have a case full of cigarettes, and it obvious that its light when you pick it up off the luggage belt, there could be a bloke, who looks like he’s come back from Spain but wasn’t on your flight, signalling to the uniform guys.
But if you’re coming from mainland Spain or the Balearics, there’s no limit to what you can bring back. Customs has indicative limits, which mean that more than this and they may suspect you’re bringing them in to sell. But you simply have to tell them they are for your own use and they have to prove otherwise.
If you’re coming from outside the EU (including the Canary Islands), there’s a limit of 200 cigarettes, and Customs are more likely to be around when you come back.
You could fill up a suitcase with cigarettes purchased in any EU country and still be legal coming back to the UK as long as they are for personal use. Checks are infrequent, but it’d be very unwise to risk bringing anything illegal through ‘cos if they catch you you’re in deep s**t.