Was There A Smuggler On My US-Bound Flight?

Happened to me twice inbound to the US. It was during COVID time and I was entering the country on a national interest waiver. All the CBP officer did was escort me to an empty booth, verified my travel history, stamped my passport there and off I went. I was told that process had to be carried out by a more senior officer and they simply didn’t want me to get lost in line.

Shouldn’t you just ask people to speak up, so that you can better listen in on their private conversation. Not speaking up is being rude to you!

Let’s get to the real reason of the flight.. was it to go back to the capital one lounge?

@ Izz -- Hah, I was in San Miguel de Allende for the weekend, and QRO and BJX are the closest airports.

I’ve watched many episodes of To Catch a Smuggler. Some times they get a tip about a passenger so they go to the gate when it arrives. But on the show they ask everyone questions and checks passport while keeping an eye out for the target. But in this case I guess they were more direct.

Ridiculous assumption. Not a smuggler. They are putting passengers and flight crew in danger with that method of apprehension should that person become uncooperative. Also, authorities would want to ensure a smuggler collects all of their belongings. If I know I’m caught, I’m not reaching for my carry on.

Oh I heard about that place, hope you reviewed where you stayed and how you felt about the area as a destination.

I hear from many it is beautiful but also feels like you see more Americans than locals there.

Viva SMA!

I bet people can't wait to sit next to you this thanksgiving

Not sure I'd consider a conversation conducted at high volume in a public space to be "private".

So how was the Rosewood? I really hope you ate at Atrio! SMA is pretty awesome. And I hope you don’t bother reviewing that “lounge” at QRO.

I'm a little surprised they would page a passenger like that, instead of just going to talk to them directly? They know where everyone is sitting...

This is comical. There could be 1000 reasons that she was paged that have nothing to do with smuggling drugs.

Seems odd that law enforcement would expect a suspect to respond to such a page promptly and without drama. Given that she was eager to respond makes me wonder if she had payed for AAs Five star service.

In contrast I used to fly DFW-LHR frequently on BA and on two occasions we were instructed to have our passports out for law enforcement as we exited the aircraft. One of these times they had the individuals in custody before I left the aircraft, I don’t know what that charge was in either case but always suspected if it wasn’t a credit card theft.

I am baffled as to why you think she wasn't a VIP. Expensive handbag, business calls about transferring money, an invitation to disembark first with everyone else remaining seated, being personally escorted away from the plane, and her calm behavior when she disembarked, as if she were used to/expected this treatment - it all fits. The single thing that doesn't fit is the flight attendant's tone when she made the announcement, and that is very shaky evidence at best. The FA might have just been having a bad day or whatever.

No reason to assume she was. If it were law enforcement, then they’d have come *to* her at her seat.

But that does beg the question why she’d be paged like that. VIP transfer for an economy passenger? In Dallas?

Weird. I was on a flight from Oaxaca, Mexico to DFW yesterday and someone was on the plane with a pair of scissors. First time I've seen this happened. One flight attendant got the scissors from a person in coach (I was in business), the other flight attendant did the security thing where they put the food cart in front of the galley to block it off, took the scissors, called the pilot saying "We got em," and the captain came out and took them.

Guess that security in Mexico is really top notch.

This was a VIP transfer. Law enforcement would not have had her come forward as they did. They would have come to the seat with no warning and removed her and her belongings from there.

We see this quite often at Dulles on International flights.

I have seen this happen on European flights when a passenger has a tight connection and asks the crew if they can be off first, in fact I have been in club Europe and crew have moved some passengers into empty seats just before starting the arrival so they can quickly get off the aircraft.

Did a bot write this "article" or is it the joke it reads?

Probably just VIP treatment. Many wealthy Mexicans have dual US/Mexican citizenship. In these uncertain times in Mexico/LA there is high concern to get money into safe US accounts.

There are many reasons to segregate a passenger from the rest. It could be VIP treatment, it could be that a family member had a health issue, her connecting flight has been delayed, she’s a diplomat, etc, etc.

If she were a non U.S. Citizen, I would assume she’s a TWOV (transit without visa) and they require security escort when transiting via the US.

As a retired Customs Special Agent, she was getting a VIP escort. First, immigration did not meet her. It was an Officer from Customs and Border Protection who are cross trained in both immigration and customs. Been that way since 2003. Second, if CBP was looking for her, we would have got her from the plane. We are not going to rely on the passenger to get all of their belongings and bring them to us on an honor system. We go and get them to make sure nothing is left behind to avoid an internal conspiracy among a dirty employee or the fact the aircraft will do a quick turn. Most Mexican smuggling attempts are via the land border with the money going to Mexico not coming in. CBP only cares if you are transporting more than 10,000 USD.

Right... if law enforcement suspects something, they wait for the suspect to deplane. They don't make an announcement politely asking them to kindly come to the front. As united airlines showed the world, arrests on planes are messy and to be avoided.

My guess would be some sort of VIP need (diplomatic, business, etc.).

If she can afford a $4k handbag she can afford a first class ticket

A spy novel is born !

And I listen carefully to conversations on Intl flights too …

Not surprised,
A few years ago on a flight to South America we had to wait until a Lady was called to the front to be met by local authorities.She was accused of going thru 3 different Ladies carry on bags and took wallets, jewelry etc.

I’ve seen people escorted off flights without the paging. I once sat next to the late Ray Charles on a domestic flight and he was not paged but escorted off the plane first. The paging, particularly the part about “taking your belongings,” doesn’t sound like a VIP situation. I agree with Ben’s assessment.

Yeah, if the FA had a tone I'd imagine it was more like "This rich ******* is wasting my time and making me get off work even later".

But it is true. Happened to me on Swiss.

I’ve experienced this many times. DOESN’T AT ALL MEAN IT WAS A SMUGGLER. It could have been somebody who was found to have arrived from a 4th level Covid country the day before, flouting US rules. Or somebody who had a family emergency that was called into the airline. Or someone whose visa might have had an issue. Even someone whose connecting international flight was waiting mode her. And so on. A smuggler? Maybe. But this kind of thing happens all the time. Nothing special.

Some years ago I experienced exactly this on a Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt into Newark. Upon arrival while taxiing to the gate the captain announced that everyone is required to remain seated until instructed differently and that US officials will enter the plane to execute an activity. When we arrived at the three officers boarded the plane and escorted one person out. Another person (German) went to the lavatory during this action - big mistake, they took this person as well. Nice welcome to the US. (US readers won’t be surprised but in Germany the officer would be in trouble, not the person.)

Annoyingly that action took more than 30min and I missed my connecting flight.

Or it could be that it was AA, so that’s their default mode.

I thought the same but then I was thinking if she was a VIP the arrangements would have been made prior to takeoff and the FA would have been alerted of procedure. Announcement made to stay seated, call her by name, let her exit, then allow the rest of plane off.

But I am not jumping to the conclusion she was a smuggler. I go along with others saying she would have been met at her seat and escorted off. I think @Lucky is using a little bias since he was in Mexico. If this happened on a flight from Vancouver for example, would he jump to the same conclusion?

I was just recently in San Miguel too. Took the DFW to QRO flight...damn that's a long drive from the airport to SMA!

A few years ago, I was on a Finnair flight from Helsinki to Beijing. The flight was normal and uneventful. When we arrived at the gate in Beijing, they made an announcement that due to "security reasons" we needed to stay seated. Then two policemen came onto the plane and escorted a man off the plane, after which we were allowed to deboard as normal. It was so strange and I have no idea what that was about. The colleagues I was travelling with also had no clue why the man was taken off the plane.

100% it was not VIP. Can't say anything else.

VIPs not I enough do end up in coach I traveled beside one who complainded the first hour of the flight to Hong Kong about his SWU "not processing".

Yet another ignorant comment. Have you read about the number of times TSA has failed security tests?

Seriously, lay off Netflix this holiday season…