Word: contrabanding
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...Says Josephson: "An Egyptian farmer will not report an archaeological find for fear his fields will be confiscated. So he either throws the object away or sells it to a cousin in Cairo." Though a peasant who finds an artifact makes a small fraction of its retail value -- one contraband Cambodian Buddha head on sale in Hong Kong recently carried a $37,000 price tag -- it is better than nothing...
Then there was the yellow bio of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney (popularity rating 13%, a new record), which noted that in 1962 the would-be PM had a job as a courier for contraband bull semen...
...Cali imagination shines when it comes to the art of smuggling. Medellin brazenly shipped cocaine across borders in fast boats or light planes with extra fuel bladders. Calenos prefer the slow but safe merchant marine. The cartel has devised endless ways to hide contraband in commercial cargo and launder it through third countries. U.S. Customs can check perhaps 3% of the 9 million shipping containers that enter U.S. ports annually, making the odds very favorable for Cali...
...lumberyard in his pocket. There, agents saw piles of mahogany boards sliced end to end, with pockets hollowed out and the tops veneered on. A few more clues popped up over the years, but nothing to pinpoint which planks, among the tons of lumber imported from South America, contained contraband...
Bilbeisi's smuggling scheme, undetected by U.S. authorities, began with bribes to coffee growers in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador to obtain beans not subject to tariff agreements. The coffee, available at bargain rates, was ostensibly for domestic consumption or export to nontariff nations. To move the contraband through Central America, Bilbeisi's agents, financed by B.C.C.I. letters of credit, paid bribes to truckers, checkpoint officials and port officials. The coffee was marked for delivery to Jordan or Syria but was routed through Miami or New Orleans, where it was secretly off-loaded. Former U.S. shipping agents who testified before...