Cuban Cigars, can you bring them home?

[Richard]

Dang MossToad, (ha, just love it)

Anyway, good research Hard (for me) to do on my phone at night after a days activity.

So I guess this means I am a smuggler.

Very ironically, today, I got a typical 'scam call'. They called on my work provided phone so I'm sort of required to answer.... the moment I heard a silence, then a click, I knew it was a scam call.

The ironic part is (oh, I hit :#1 to be transferred to a representative to fix my emergency problem, that I didn't know I had)

None the less.... instead of the call being about my (1995) car warranty about to expire, it was about CUSTOMS. This is why I went ahead and hit for Representative.

When he got on, he identified himself as customs and what was my issue? I said I didn't know, "you called me".

"Didn't the operator give you a reference number?"

"Nope..... but I DO freely admit to being a smuggler"

He hung up on me and no black helicopters have circled my house yet. Dang. I thought I'd make tonight's news.

 

[JasperFrank]

Does it matter if the Cigar is Cuban? In a blind test I doubt if any one could tell the difference between a Cuban, a Dominican Republican, Nicaraguan, or Honduran made cigar. All of which are readily available in the United States.

 

[etpm]

After moving to WA in 1980 My wife and I went on a ferry trip to Canada. I bought a case of Canadian beer because at the time it was hard to find in WA. Coming back Customs asked if I had anything to declare and I pointed to the case of beer visible through the window. He said that was a little more than I was supposed to bring back without paying a duty but that he would let it go this time. He could tell I was young and naive. I asked how much I could bring in but he just smiled at me and waved us on. We were in a long line of cars all waiting after all. When I got home I asked folks who would know and was told I could only bring back 1 liter of beer, wine, or spirits. Since then I have been pretty good about checking what I can bring back.
Eric

 

[dmccarty]

I know one thing, the custom agents I recall had no sense of humor; in fact, we were advised not to kid around with them.

Nobody has told me this, but I don't joke around with Customs or Immigration officers. Even then, they did not like my answers when we returned from China. Thankfully, we the last US passport holders off the full plane and there was a long line of people they needed to check. Pretty sure the officer pushed a button to tell other officers to search us for some reason. Like I said, was not joking around, only answered what was asked, yada yada yada.

As were walking passed the table where the do searches I heard two officers say to not to bother, they had a huge line of people to process.

What we were worried about was the medicinal herbs that our host in China had given us....



It was sold in stores but she had some growing in the garden. I can' remember the name but I have seen in growing the states. Anyway, it was a dried, green plant material ground into flakes....



You burn the herb, yeah, yeah, yeah, I hear ya'll laughing now... You burn the herb in an enclosed brass puck like device that is put into a fabric sack. The herb heats the brass puck and you use it like a heating pad. The smoke is supposed to be good for you too. I can still here the laughter in TBN Land.

To make it worse, the dried, green plant material was wrapped in white paper and looked like a huge cigar.

I really did not want to try to explain to Customs the Chinese herb heating pad....



Later,
Dan

 

[PuffyC]

In my experience they generally don’t care about personal use amounts of just about anything consumable, up to and including things that might get you arrested in some states. I figure it’s best to only declare the obvious and plead stupidity if they find anything else because worst case is they take it and toss it. You’re not who they’re really looking for.

 

[Torvy]

Worst case is they find it take it and fine you (amount depends on value of contraband).

OP, your punishment for violation is to smoke all of the cigars at the same time. That should teach you to stop smuggling, er smoking.

 

[JethroB]

We use to come "outside" from Alaska to visit our folks every three years or so. NEVER noticed that any of the border guards had much of a sense of humor. I've not been back to Canada since it now requires a passport.

Speaking of cigars. We use to smoke these NASTY Mexican cigars when we lived in AK. Looked similar to a dog turd. Very good at keeping the mosquitos away. We never theorized on what they must have been made of.

As teenagers it was Swisher Sweet Tips for the gnats and mosquitoes. If you were really tough it was a Moonshine Crook.

 

[California]

We visited younger daughter during her semester abroad in New Delhi. After landing at San Francisco in the middle of the night, dead tired, our luggage never came out of customs. So we waited. Until we were the last people in the room. The customs agent rudely demanded that I swab a paper napkin on my hand then he put the napkin in some kind of scanner. WTFFFF???? He came back and interrogated us thoroughly about every place we had been in three weeks. Then he still wouldn't let us proceed.

It finally occurred to me to explain that we and our luggage reeked of gunpowder because we had just endured a week of blinding fireworks smoke in New Delhi during Diwali - a national holiday in India. (Before US Thanksgiving). Think July 4 and New Years combined. A week long. The smoke was so bad it hurt your throat and you couldn't see the length of a block, a lot of the time. Indians love their fireworks. He looked like a light bulb clicked on. Here's your (messily searched) luggage. You're released.

Welcome home?

Then more recently we've been waved through the No Search boarding station for departures. Age? Or did that incident start a TSA file on us marked 'Don't bother, they're harmless'. ?

 

[tshep]

Coming back from Jamaica or Bahama - a while ago - we were not supposed to have any plants. They passed us on with an aloe plant - because we were all obviously burnt - called it medicinal.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

Are they actual Cubans? Mexico is a hotbed for counterfeit Cubans... my in-laws brought some home to me. I was like... yeah... um... thanks. I acted excited, but knew Cubans do not come in boxes with glass lids I didn’t have the heart to tell them they were fakes.You can verify the barcode on Habanos to see if they are in fact real.
They should have a holographic label, barcode you can verify online, and the Habanos paper in the box that will curl from the heat of the palm of your hand.

I came across these recently. Switzerland ships worldwide.