My husband is on Federal Grand Jury duty in Tucson until April 2024. Sometime around when he started in April of this year he discovered the immigration, customs and border patrol focused program linked below and started watching it. I assumed it would primarily about drugs and our land border with Mexico. That's certainly true about many of the US episodes, but I was surprised at the number of them that involved airports in a variety of American locations and the number of other things that people try to smuggle in.
I've linked the one on Rome as an example of ones that aren't focused on North America: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/tv/shows/to-catch-a-smuggler-rome
Over time we've seen episodes that are at airports in Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Peru, Spain, Italy -- you get the idea. Whether they are the departure or the arrival airport, the smugglers have to be coming from somewhere and going somewhere else. Millions of people fly every day and the percentage of people caught smuggling is very low. Emphasis on the caught.
One of the reasons I'm posting about this is the coverage of what catches the attention of the police. Many of the triggers are relevant to discussions on the Forum. Examples include those that follow, but there are many more.
No return airplane ticket. Fake passports or visas. Lots of checked luggage. Checked luggage inconsistent with the length of the trip. Items seen on x-ray in those bags or carry-ons. Bags that are heavier than expected for their size. Clothing that looks odd, like it's stuffed with something, whether on the person or placed in a bin for x-ray. Unidentified pills. Lots of pills of any kind. Toiletries in excess of what might be expected for a trip. Loose or poorly packed food or vegetable matter. Things that look like bricks when they go through the scanner. (Possible drugs or money.) Bags that get the attention of the sniffer dogs. People's behavior that gets the attention of the airport police.
Anything that might cause a delay is annoying, but there seems to be no limit to what people might try to smuggle or the ways they might try to do it. I've been particularly surprised by those who try to travel with fake documents or with lots of cash money or with potentially illegal artifacts. No matter what country or what language, I'm impressed by the knowledge and professionalism of the agents, police ... and the dogs ... and in the future I'll be less critical of slow downs so that they can do their important jobs.