I am sure that it was a mistake. I am sure that he meant no harm, nor did he intend to break the laws….and one wonders how he could be so stupid as to make that mistake. How did the rounds get into his carry on? Further, how did he miss them while packing for his latest trip? 4 rounds in a ziploc bag is not a tiny thing.
Having said that, If you are that stupid to have brought “Hunting Ammo” on a trip,,,,IN YOUR CARRY ON, from a previous trip, you sorta deserve what you get.
Why would ammo be in a carry-on (domestic or international) in the first place? AFAIK, the TSA discourages the carriage of rifle rounds in domestic carry-ons as well. Which leads to make me wonder how he got it on the plane FROM the US in the first place.. If his story is true, then the TSA had to have missed these rifle rounds TWICE….once when he flew home from his hunting trip, and again when he left to go to on this vacation.
The Turks and Caicos is not the US. He is learning a very valuable lesson.
If I should “accidentally” bring pot back from Amsterdam, then that is on me…..”It was in my backpack and I was carrying it for a friend and forgot to take it out before boarding” isn’t gonna cut it with Customs in the US, is it?
Either way, it is up to the traveler to make sure his possessions are legal where he is going.
Stupid should hurt. and it is apparently casing him pain right now.
His legal argument is best summed up as
“I was too stupid and lazy to follow the rules, or prevent running afoul of them.”
That said, 12 years in prison for such a willfully ignorant offense is too harsh for a tourist.
A simple judicial caning, 10-30 lashes or so, followed by a bucket of saltwater, and a lifetime expulsion from T&C, with his back still freshly bloodied, should suffice.
Stupid should hurt.
I’ll disagree. I don’t think that you “deserve what you get” when you have these kinds of draconian rules when it’s absolutely an accident and there’s no indication of any intent. This reminds me of people who have been arrested in New York when they have firearms or ammunition in their checked luggage. Their flight is cancelled and they have to switch airlines — which means picking up your luggage and taking it to another airline. When they pick up their luggage they get arrested for having a firearm. See: https://www.justanswer.com/criminal-law/9dtw5-arrested-laguardia-unloaded.html. Or, worse, driving up I 95 with a firearm in your car, traveling from one state where its legal to another state where it’s legal and stored legally for both states, but getting stopped on the beltway for a minor traffic violation.
Not like he was going to another country or anything…..
So you’re taking the position that ignorance of the law is an affirmative defense, and that foreign countries’ legal codes should have an exception clause for American bumpkins?
“A man who picks a cat up by the tail learns something which he can learn in no other way.” – Mark Twain
Paging Brittney Griner
Paging Brittney Griner