Have you ever been stopped by Customs coming INTO Thailand ?

[jballstate 326]

Never bothered me in 9 years and I never saw them stop anyone.

[Fondles 94]

Yeah ive been pulled a few times, but considering ive come through swampy hundreds of times since it opened it is to be expected occosionally, have never had anything confiscated though. bags through the xray machine and thats it.

Edited January 15, 2012 by Fondles

[TheFiend 1,181]

Been stopped twice flying into Swampy and both time been slightly over the allowance. First time got pulled after going through the Nothing to Declare exit and was looking for my taxi driver. After a quick look through my hand luggage they let me go. The second time I had just got off the plane, was walking along the concourse towards immigration when I got pulled for a quick look through my hand luggage.

[Skate 9]

From the luggage carrousel I thought a guy was watching me but no worries. Weird (ladyboy ? lol) When I left the

terminal, just outside the door going to the taxi stand and was stopped. A guy w/badge wanted to check my very stuffed carrry on.

I knew what he was looking for and said, I don't smoke and don't drink (wink).. No Cig's.. Just carrying extra jockey's

for a friend living in Thailand.. He looked at me and I shrugged my shoulder.. Unzipped my bag and he quickly said to close

it and good bye. I was an underwear mule that trip.. true story..

[Grandpollo 366]

There is no way it is one in ten. The last 2 times there must have been 100 people a minute leaving through nothing to declare as there were maybe 5 flights at once, and they weren't stopping 10 a minute. I saw two bored looking guys in suits near a x-ray machine and I didn't see anyone get stopped nor anyone at the x-ray machine. Hong Kong is similar.

 

How they would grab people after they arrive where all the meet and greet goes on is beyond me. There are sometimes 500 people out there.

 

Still smuggling is for dopes. Good way to get deported, fined, jailed or excluded.

[joekicker 53]

There is no way it is one in ten. The last 2 times there must have been 100 people a minute leaving through nothing to declare as there were maybe 5 flights at once, and they weren't stopping 10 a minute.

 

The last two times ... what? The last two times you were there but didn't watch for it and didn't count?

 

C'mon Mr Onto, there's not the slightest way you could know what they stop, survey or otherwise get involved with. The only thing you can confirm (maybe; assuming you notice one or more) by flying to Bangkok twice is that people ARE stopped after they pass through the customs checkpoint. You definitely can't tell how many customs agents there are, or what they do for the other 18 hours a day you were there or the 20 hours a day for the other 363 days you weren't there.

 

And are you serious they cleared 5 flights in roughly 10 minutes (100 people a minute)? At Suvarnabhumi? You count that, also?

 

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[nickman70 470]

I have never been stopped in 3 years of going there.

As Sam mentioned, I am more annoyed by the customs back home in the States. I travel light, just one carry-on luggage, so there is really no much to search, Most of the times the passport control personnel are very pleasant and professional ( with their welcome back) but from time to time, I get those annoying questions from clearly pissed off officers with attitude:

 

"why did you travel that many times to Thailand?"

" do you have business there?"

"any drugs?"

 

I don't mind the questions, I mind the attitudes, those "Muffafakers" get payed by me the tax payed, so they should stick to doing their job, catching the bad guys, and not harassing guys on holiday when there is no reason for it.

[joekicker 53]

I don't mind the questions, I mind the attitudes, those "Muffafakers" get payed by me the tax payed, so they should stick to doing their job, catching the bad guys, and not harassing guys on holiday when there is no reason for it.

 

How do they know you are a guy on holiday with no reason to search UNLESS they ask you? By your "I'm a Good Guy" smilie badge?

 

Totally agree about the attitude. Although the TSA rentacops are far, far worse. I seriously believe they are out of hand.

 

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[mister_handy 124]

Never been searched coming into LOS, and going on 11 years and except for 2001 (one trip) and 2002 (none) at least two trips a year. Never a search. Only place I have had my bags searched besides coming back into the US were Singapore, where they were X-raying every bag coming in then... no biggie... and Australia, where I had some food items with me that I had to run by the customs inspector and once he cleared those they did a routine X-ray of my bags.

 

Prior to getting Global Entry was getting searched every second or third trip coming into the US (HIGHLY recommended to any US folks here, $100 for 5 years and gets you a machine with no line instead of the immigration guy, and a shorter line at customs) ... since global entry have never been searched except when I had food items that I had to declare and then it was just the X-ray at the agricultural station rather than the fish-through-the-bags at the main inspection.

 

Sadly, no equivalent of Global Entry (yet ... there was a commercial program "Clear" in the past, and there are pilots of a government-run one but alas not at airports I tend to use) for the airport security side of things... can get the short line to get up to the checkpoint by having airline status (or a business/first class ticket) but after that you are still getting the same mistreatment and slowdown that everyone else does.

[nickman70 470]

How do they know you are a guy on holiday with no reason to search UNLESS they ask you? By your "I'm a Good Guy" smilie badge?

 

Totally agree about the attitude. Although the TSA rentacops are far, far worse. I seriously believe they are out of hand.

 

.

 

I have no issues with the questions, I don't even have issues with a search. What I don't like is the attitude, and questions and remarks from some of these officers that are clearly out of line. Last year, an officer who sounded like an East European immigrant ( not relevant for the story), started asking me

a string of questions abou who do I know, what kinda business am in, I politely answered with a smile, until he asked me : " do you have a wife or GF?", WTF

I politely replied : "This is a personal matter, I don't see the relevance of this question"

He then went on lecturing me with attitude: " How can you leave your woman here and go to Thailand??"

I did not want to escalate things, I just ignored his rent and just said with a smile: "I am just a simple guy on vacation"

 

What pisses me off is, these guys a payed by taxpayers to catchy bad guys. It is none of his business if I sleep around

or not. It is not part of his job description to give me lectures about morals. This is pure abuse of power and if I have

time for this shit I would have reported him, but then again, I will be just getting myself in situation I don't have time to deal with.

[Ularu 16]

Never in bangkok 10 visits

[papillon 695]

I've never been stopped or X-rayed and I always go through the Green Channel.

 

There's always somebody having their luggage searched when I go through.

 

Whoever said that one tenth of Passengers are searched must be on Crack. I would estimate less than one percent are searched.

 

Luggage is sometimes searched before it hits the Carousel. Quite often my Suitcase arrives on the Carousel with various ckalk marks written on it. What that means, I don't know.

[Severn 109]

You may not have seen it because the agents who do this are in plain clothes and fairly discreet. If you watch for 2-3 Thai men (almost always men) sort of sidling up to people who have just sauntered through the green line, you will see it too. It is done in the "hall" between Customs and the public area, and it is done in public areas all the way out to the sidewalk in front of the airport building.

 

I have no idea if it is one in 10, but it is common.

 

Next time, after you've gone through Customs and you're in that "hall" on the way out to meet your friends or taxi or whatever, look along the sides and you will almost always see people opening their suitcases while Thai men in mufti watch or direct them.

 

 

.

 

I can confirm this as I have been asked, after passing through Customs into the arrival hall, to open my bags ( hold & carry-on) for inspection. He was feeling down the sides and I guess searching for cigarettes and booze. It was all very discrete and I was allowed to continue within 3 or 4 minutes as I did not have contraband.

[alphacat 12]

Never in 30 years....

[Grahamxxx 211]

Over 70 plus trips and never been stopped

[chatkeow 28]

Interesting that some are saying that Customs jurisdiction applies even after exiting the main doors to the Airport.....

 

Where does the boundary end ?? On that basis that you can be stopped outside of the airport than whats to stop Customs following individuals to Pattaya or wherever ??

 

Cant help imagining that these individuals on the concourse could well be pulling a scam ??

 

Would imagine some quality ID could easily be knocked up to facilitate a scam ??

[buzzfuzz1 5]

On my 2nd trip I was searched at swampy outside the main enterance while having a smoke. He asked me to open my bag checked for cigs & alcohol saw that I had one carton and told me to close and then left. Got in a taxi and headed off to Patts. Didn't think much of this at the time but are they allowed to search you outside of the airport? Maybe on airport grounds? ANyway I was under the limit so did not really care but he could have slipped something into my bag and then I would have been in some serious shit.

[buzzfuzz1 5]

Interesting that some are saying that Customs jurisdiction applies even after exiting the main doors to the Airport.....

 

Where does the boundary end ?? On that basis that you can be stopped outside of the airport than whats to stop Customs following individuals to Pattaya or wherever ??

 

Cant help imagining that these individuals on the concourse could well be pulling a scam ??

 

Would imagine some quality ID could easily be knocked up to facilitate a scam ??

 

That is a little unsetteling

[Regyai 415]

I doubt LOS is any different

 

 

Customs usually have jurisdiction anywhere within the country they serve

 

 

 

.

[joekicker 53]

Interesting that some are saying that Customs jurisdiction applies even after exiting the main doors to the Airport.....

 

Where does the boundary end ?? On that basis that you can be stopped outside of the airport than whats to stop Customs following individuals to Pattaya or wherever ??

 

High level drug arrests are made and publicised in downtown Bangkok and further - by the Customs Department. Imports to Thailand come from one or two places more than the Customs Hall of Suvarnabhumi airport, eh? The Customs people at the airport are a SMALL fraction of Customs people and your suitcase is a minuscule part of their duties.

 

Customs police are national police. Their jurisdiction is the type of case, not geography. Same as, for example, immigration. Immigration police are all over the country of course. So are customs police.

 

Consider this for a minute just for an example. Income taxes are a small part of government revenue in Thailand. Excise tax is a HUGE part of it. That little stamp over the top of your whisky bottle in Foodland - it's not put on by Customs people in the Arrivals Hall of Suvarnabhumi!

 

To answer your question, yes, you can be arrested in Pattaya or Nakhon Nowhere by Customs police. It's rare, but it happens. More often you'll be done by the Excise police, who are their brothers and cousins in crime. They are part of the Thai government, why would they be limited to a tiny geographical area?

 

.

Edited January 16, 2012 by joekicker

[CheshireTom 1,377]

Interesting that some are saying that Customs jurisdiction applies even after exiting the main doors to the Airport.....

 

Where does the boundary end ?? On that basis that you can be stopped outside of the airport than whats to stop Customs following individuals to Pattaya or wherever ??

 

Cant help imagining that these individuals on the concourse could well be pulling a scam ??

 

Would imagine some quality ID could easily be knocked up to facilitate a scam ??

 

Coming from Qatar, I got stopped after exiting customs by a couple of guys in civvies. I obviously asked to see their ID and requested a uniformed copper to be present. No great drama and I was taken to a room roughly opposite Exit Door 8 where they then checked my hold baggage. I got the impression they were specifically after ciggies.

[mcan 0]

Xray machine on the odd 0ccaision,till this November,came out through green start heading towards taxi pick up my wife called me back three customs guys had stopped my sons they had us open three out of four suitcases on the floor,didnt really search them just happy with the tops open. Very polite never checked the fourth bag. I believe it was probably because we had a couple of duty free bags on top of the suit cases, Next time you come past the scanners and turn right towards the exits look to your right where the scanner side next to the wall if you see three or four plain clothes guys there they are probably customs guys.

[jacko 8,813]

I have no issues with the questions, I don't even have issues with a search. What I don't like is the attitude, and questions and remarks from some of these officers that are clearly out of line. Last year, an officer who sounded like an East European immigrant ( not relevant for the story), started asking me

a string of questions abou who do I know, what kinda business am in, I politely answered with a smile, until he asked me : " do you have a wife or GF?", WTF

I politely replied : "This is a personal matter, I don't see the relevance of this question"

He then went on lecturing me with attitude: " How can you leave your woman here and go to Thailand??"

I did not want to escalate things, I just ignored his rent and just said with a smile: "I am just a simple guy on vacation"

 

What pisses me off is, these guys a payed by taxpayers to catchy bad guys. It is none of his business if I sleep around

or not. It is not part of his job description to give me lectures about morals. This is pure abuse of power and if I have

time for this shit I would have reported him, but then again, I will be just getting myself in situation I don't have time to deal with.

There is an old adage about putting guys in uniforms turning them into cunts.

There was a video clip recently of a customs official refusing to be subjected to security checks and actually assaulting the worker for having the affrontery. You can often see the 'my shit don't stink' expressions on the male Immigration officials. I go for the female queue.

Edited January 17, 2012 by jacko

[nickman70 470]

There is an old adage about putting guys in uniforms turning them into cunts.

There was a video clip recently of a customs official refusing to be subjected to security checks and actually assaulting the worker for having the affrontery. You can often see the 'my shit don't stink' expressions on the male Immigration officials. I go for the female queue.

 

 

Sorry I keep harping on this subject because this officer really got on my nerves. Good advice on the female officer Jacko, I will keep this in mind next time. Come to think of it, I use that advice on other things, I was always luck when I get interviewed by females for jobs. Next time, it will be the female officer line even if it is longer, I am in in a depressing mood when I came back from LOS, a bad officer would be adding salt to injury.

[oldtimer 0]

Never. more than 20 visits.