Legal prerequisites to mail control

What's up guys,

arguably the riskiest part of the DNM business is getting your stuff delivered to you. Most busts are related directly to poor stealth or profiled packages.

So under what circumstances are the authorities allowed to open your mail? Assuming the package doesn't raise any suspicions and your address isn't burned, you should be good right? I figure it's a big legal burden that has to be overcome before you can open someone's mail.

I'd be especially interested in an answer regarding the legal situation in EU/Germany.


Comments


[1 Points] None:

I would suggest in EU now they are going to open anything they want. Isn't France in a state of emergency? I am not lawyer.

That said I would hope that the Worlds LE organization focus on the nutters running fucking wild. I see a huge backlash if they are wasting time looking for pot.


[1 Points] snackburros:

In the United States at least for the postal service, and especially first class and priority mail, there's a warrant requirement with all the requisite and particularized suspicion that comes with that.

"Letters and sealed packages of this kind in the mail are as fully guarded from examination and inspection, except as to their outward form and weight, as if they were retained by the parties forwarding them in their own domiciles. The constitutional guaranty of the right of the people to be secure in their papers against unreasonable searches and seizures extends to their papers, thus closed against inspection, wherever they may be. Whilst in the mail, they can only be opened and examined under like warrant, issued upon similar oath or affirmation, particularly describing the thing to be seized, as is required when papers are subjected to search in one's own household. No law of Congress can place in the hands of officials connected with the postal service any authority to invade the secrecy of letters and such sealed packages in the mail; and all regulations adopted as to mail matter of this kind must be in subordination to the great principle embodied in the fourth amendment of the Constitution." Ex parte Jackson, 96 U.S. 727, 733 (1877). Of course, there are a lot of way to get a warrant, and it doesn't apply to, say, FedEx package, but the basic idea is that a postal inspector can't just open someone's mail for the hell of it.

No idea how it works in Europe though. I'm sure there's right to privacy, but I have no idea how it's interpreted.