Silk Road forums
Discussion => Shipping => Topic started by: Regicide on June 12, 2012, 01:09 am
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I'm posting this thread to shed some light on the procedural uses and practices that were employed in a recent seizure of my online pharmacy order of a personal amount of a Schedule I (Canada) substance sent from the UK about a month ago.
Before I continue, to be clear, this incident was not one related to Silk Road in anyway. The processes involved are, however, familiar to the operations of The Road, and involves relevant information about Canadian customs, seizures and related procedures. Also worth mentioning: the following information described is not a severe consequence for the interception which took place. I am posting this for informative reasons only. For the purpose of educating Canadians and others who are interested in foreign customs/border laws (possibly vendors with many Canadian customers). This is the first international package I have ever had seized and accordingly, the first “love-letter” addressed to me from the Canada Border Services Agency.
The main thing I learned from this is that Silk Road is a much more reliable place to buy your favourite, hard-to-find products, as the creative vendors take into account all hazards and risks associated with international mail, because they want to maintain their status as a reputable vendor (aside of course, from simply being a nice, compassionate human being and caring for their wonderful customers :D). I’m happy to say I “imported” a nice package from the U.S. 10 days after this seizure, and it wasn’t tampered with at all, which tells me I’m nothing special, I’m just a small fish and to the CBSA my address is probably nothing more than a block of text sitting in a database in case I decide to dispute the seizure. And just as I'm posting this, I have quickly received another med-large package from the UK with no return address that arrived very quickly and again: not intercepted or opened.
I will leave certain information out, as I do not believe that any suspicions remain on my identity or physical address after this incident, and even doubt there was a whole lot of suspicion compared to the other things they must pull from some of those boxes. Failing to omit some specific details can quite easily lead to my identity being discovered, and being potentially “blacklisted” by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA). This would be regrettable. :-X
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I N D E X
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(Scroll down to find topic headings which are listed chronologically in the same priority as this index)
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----- I. Internet Online Pharmacy Order
----- II. Customs Seizure
----- III. Scanned Documents
----- IV. NOTICE OF SEIZURE
----- V. Contents of Notice
----- VI. What Will I Do?
----- VII. How Did This Happen?
----- VIII. Final Note
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||||| Internet Online Pharmacy Order |||||
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||||| April/May 2012
I decided that I wanted to buy a controlled substance from a reputable internet online pharmacy (IOP). For those who don’t know, these are legal, offshore businesses that prescribe medications (only certain, less enforced, lower-risk medications). After selecting the product of my choice (a Schedule I substance in Canada, which is the most severe class of controlled substances on the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act; some equivalents include: cocaine, meth, PCP, Ketamine, Opium derivatives, etc.), I decided I was going to place my order. I chose this place, because of its UK location and the fact that they ship from the UK as well. Because of this, their prices are steeper than many other IOPs. But fuck those sketchy fly-by-night unlicensed pharmacies.
I was redirected to a questionnaire at the checkout, which asked thorough, relevant questions about my health (more of an examination than a physical doctor requires of you most of the time. Obviously the issue here is that lying about symptoms becomes child’s play). After answering the questions truthfully (I didn’t have any reason to lie about my single symptom I required the medicine for :P), I finally paid for my item.
About 2 hours after placing the order, an incomprehensible Indian man called my cell to confirm the sale. He told me the order was processed and will now be reviewed by a doctor (This doctor is presumably the practitioner who works at this particular IOP to write legal offshore prescriptions in order to bypass international laws).
Substances Purchased: 100ct of a Schedule I substance; enforced under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (Canada). A Schedule I drug offense reserves the highest penalties if convicted with the lower numbers being lower in severity such as Schedule III: amphetamines and LSD with the least severe schedule being Schedule VIII: Possession of 30g or less of marijuana.
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*Note: No offense was actually committed by me anyway, I’m just considering all the potential factors, because things can always change, and it’s a good habit to be thorough when preventing or assessing risk.
I figured since the product shipped from the UK, everything would be fine. After all, we still have the fucking queen on the back of all our coins (I wanna start a “file off the queen” campaign to erase the archaic monarchic symbol that insults the hard workers of Canada. So to all Canadians: If you’re up to the task, keep a metalworking file with you or leave one around your house to flatten the ugly side of your national coins. Eventually the gov’t will realize we’re tired of non-patriotic coin logos)[Rant off...]. I thought the prescription may be checked by customs, but a valid prescription would allow for the package to continue en route to yours truly.
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||||| Customs Seizure |||||
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||||| Early May 2012
I had received a tracking number for my order which was sent via UK’s Royal Mail and Canada Post's Xpresspost service. For just over a week (and even now) the message I got when tracking the number was this:
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"Some items may be delayed if held by customs for additional inspection. Canada Post has no information on specific items awaiting customs inspection. Once an item clears customs, it is handed over to Canada Post for delivery. Delivery time depends on the product and the distance to its destination."
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So after a few days I was 100% sure it was intercepted, and figured I had a ~75% chance of receiving the one item in question. Well over a week from arriving in Mississauga, Canada, I finally got my mail! But it was just a brown government standard letter-sized envelope. What did it say? Well I figured I should scan it and let those interested take a look if you are curious. I will summarize it below as well.
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||||| Scanned Documents |||||
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*Note: Most variable/personal information has been withheld for anonymity/security purposes.
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||||| NOTICE OF SEIZURE ||||| [This is the heading of the enclosed 2-page document]
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Now I must admit I didn’t read it all, but the sections I did randomly select to read all implied that the main course of action for the CBSA is that they inform the addressee of the recipient, the reason for the seizure, “Seizure #” (Presumably for the recipient to dispute if interested), tracking number (If applicable), and the Seizing Officer’s “Badge no.” or “Employee ID”. There was a total of 2 computer printed 8.5x11 sheets of paper (1-sided) enclosed within the envelope, vertically split with French written on the right side.
Other custom areas on the template include the recipients address, to whom the notice was addressed to as well; The postal processing facility at which the package was intercepted; The date of seizure/detaining of goods -Yes, they were goods =[ ; And lastly the date that the form was filled out or registered.
Now, what they failed to record for a reason beyond my logic is offer the return mailing address of the package along with the name of the controlled substance. This system seems like it could make it very hard to import legitimate products on occasion, simply because it has an obscure chemical name, thereby causing a customs officer to declare it a controlled substance. So CBSA, what was this controlled substance someone was trying to send to me? More importantly, WHO was the recorded sender of this package? It’s almost like they want you to deal directly with them. Maybe I will once I contact the IOP.
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||||| Contents of Notice |||||
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Basically, as is with any published legal material, there are about 5 conditional sections, to which few to none affect you. Within these sections, there are even more conditional clauses of which only one is relevant to you if any (If you look really, really closely, you can even read some of the words!).
To summarize all this legal jargon, the universal message of the “Notice of Seizure” is a notice to the addressee (myself, in this case) letting him know that he has 90 days (from the date of seizure) to dispute the seizure. The subsection (138) goes on to declare that anyone can dispute the seizure with the exception of those who performed the seizure (presumably the customs officer(s)).
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||||| What Will I Do? |||||
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Well I must admit I am disappointed that an item I paid for was seized (approx. Value: $150CAD). Although this is the case, going through any legal process such as this is a headache that requires a lot more than $150 of indirect costs to go through to be worth the time and effort (I’m only assuming this, so maybe this will be my plan B).
I plan on contacting the IOP that I purchased my goods from and telling them what happened to my package in a disappointed, but charmingly polite way. Since this business is reputable and has many customers, I think I may have a chance of getting reimbursed for the purchase; less the shipping cost of course.
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||||| How Did This Happen? |||||
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I have concluded that the most likely reason that this package was intercepted, opened and finally seized is simply because most IOP’s (this one for sure) are legit registered businesses. In many cases, this means that customs lists and/or packing lists are enclosed which immediately alerts the customs officer of the package’s contents.
As I said before, I find it strange that it was seized even though there was a legitimate doctor’s prescription included in the package that was from a licensed UK doctor, which should be honoured in Canada. (or perhaps they forgot to put it in when packing it; who knows?)
Sorry for the essay length guys, but I already had people quite interested in this incident and figured this wonderful community may have a little curiosity about the subject. Hope you learnt something!
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||||| Final Note |||||
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I was not paranoid about the delay in customs when checking the tracking number through to the time I received the letter. I knew that the most that would be lost was the value of the seized goods. So I was just mildly upset (I knew the risks prior to ordering; and this was a small purchase compared to many others I’ve successfully ordered and received. Also, I only import pharmaceutical products internationally at the moment, which I believe is just another seizure that will happen several times in any given day at the CBSA. Large amounts of narcotics are the diamonds in the rough, and all this personal shit is just the “rough”.
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Thanks for reading! I will update any additional information that I stumble onto regarding this situation, and the end outcome after contacting the IOP followed by CBSA.
To all my fellow drivers on The Road, I wish you all the best! ;D
Cheers,
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R E G I C I D E 8)
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this is relevant to my interests. thank you for posting this.
very informative
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Amazing post, someone please +1 this dude, wow.
Tons of useful information that I wasn't able to find anywhere else.
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this is relevant to my interests. thank you for posting this.
very informative
Ditto! Thanks Reg.
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||||| How Did This Happen? |||||
I have concluded that the most likely reason that this package was intercepted, opened and finally seized is simply because most IOP’s (this one for sure) are legit registered businesses. In many cases, this means that customs lists and/or packing lists are enclosed which immediately alerts the customs officer of the package’s contents.
That pretty much sums it up.
Regular business letters going by regular mail, with no more than 1g of any substance, should pass unnoticed IMO.
Good read OP.
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UPDATE:
The package that was seized was returned to it's respective sender in the UK who sent an email ask if I would liek them to reship it to an alternate address. I asked for a refund, less the shipping cost, and also asked how discreet theeir shipping was, to which I got the answer:
"We kindly want to inform that we ship all orders in discreet packaging and we put "Health Aid" on custom declaration description while shipping the orders."
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"Further, please take a note that we are constantly changing our packaging to ensure that the package is delivered successfully."
Also, they were happy to give me a full refund on the product ;D
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"We kindly want to inform that we ship all orders in discreet packaging and we put "Health Aid" on custom declaration description while shipping the orders."
That's like saying "please open me!" :D
Anyway, I wonder if the CBSA contacted the RCMP and if they checked your records for any criminal background... After all, you were importing a Controlled Substance Schedule I, and that's a crime, isn't it?
Cheers.
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"We kindly want to inform that we ship all orders in discreet packaging and we put "Health Aid" on custom declaration description while shipping the orders."
That's like saying "please open me!" :D
Anyway, I wonder if the CBSA contacted the RCMP and if they checked your records for any criminal background... After all, you were importing a Controlled Substance Schedule I, and that's a crime, isn't it?
Cheers.
I actually do have prior charges which have been acquitted (This is still visible by federal/provincial courts).
Aside from this, to my knowledge, many people (especially seniors) try to import prescription drugs to Canada and the USA, and I have yet to hear of anyone actually getting pursued legally as a consequence. This is a very common incidence, and the RCMP doesn't have time to waste on investigations of personal amounts of drugs.
Also, as I said earlier, I am still getting packages of substances untouched by customs from other countries, so it seems that this activity is not suspicious. I think customs believes that people such as myself are simply unaware of the legality, and since it's nothing big, they just follow the procedure of offering to dispute the seizure, followed by sending the product to the sender.
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is this just applied to Candada or other countries too? anyone knows?
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i swear like half the Canadian users on SR are from sauga.
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is this just applied to Candada or other countries too? anyone knows?
Similar incidents have been claimed to have happened in the US, and Australia to my knowledge. Although Australian customs seems to be the strictest of most of the active countries here, they still seem to just send a notification of seizure for small amounts. This is the federal government we're talking about. The feds (RCMP in our case: Canada) are after "drug rings" which is the trafficking of large quantities clearly for the purpose of selling.
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This was very relevant and informative. Thanks for posting.
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Awesome read. Thanks for sharing 8)
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i got one of those letters too but mine said prohibited goods not controlled substance whats the difference ? plus the only thing im waiting on is 2 grams of hash should i be worried
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i got one of those letters too but mine said prohibited goods not controlled substance whats the difference ? plus the only thing im waiting on is 2 grams of hash should i be worried
I think a prohibited good is something like a firearm, knife, ammunition, etc.
Controlled substances are related to drugs.
Can someone confirm this?
Anyway, are you in a big city?
East or west coast?
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Ronaldo, it wouldn't surprise me if its some knock-off electronics equipment from china without an invoice to tax the shit out of you lol. Unless ur buying hard drugs in big enjou7gh amounts, ignore seizuere letters if ur unsure what package it pertains to. The CBSA definately hasn't chcked any large internation packages to the same address for me lol. Maybe stick to domestic for a month.
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+1 very helpful. I don't think that LE has the resources to monitor the address unless it was a large quantity BUT that computer never forgets your address if you are unlucky enough to get a second intercepted package they might not send a letter but actually follow up... that being said the amount of Viagra that they seize must be overwhelming, and I am sure that one seized order wouldn't discourage someone that wanted it from ordering again!
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Hey for all of us living in Canada, be grateful for the lack of or Southern Brother's Drug Enforcement Agency. Although the DEA influences Canadian legislation thru lobbying our government by way of threat and intimidation, the do not have any power under any Canadian jurisdiction.
I have quite a bit of hate for the DEA and what it has done to America and US citizens. It's a fucking pathetic excuse of authority with a mission that wastes resources and destroys lives. Focusing on incarceration instead of therapy costs tax-payers more money than I would even want to know, and also keeps crime rates up, which indirectly effects these same tax payers. More social services for drug users to get their lives straightened out would be favourable. I was lucky to be Canadian when I was arrested with drug charges. The courts helped me clean up in a proactive way that should be commended.
America, a land of well-meaning citizens who are portrayed by their own government's laws as dangerous criminals, in need of a confined space to get their shit together (because that works, right?). Technology has come a long way, but authority around the world remains corrupt, and our way of life has barely improved with advanced technology; more stress and unhappiness today than ever. The whole world needs a big change that can only be adapted slowly, where the slow transition of things adds to the difficulty of getting to that desired state.
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live in a small town but its funny you mention Chinese electronics because i was also waiting on a replica rolex watch from asian vixen had a big delay for the express shipping time so i wonder if they seized the watch and the vendor saw it with the tracking and sent another because they also threw a second ladies watch in to be nice so maybe my hash wasnt intercepted because that would make sense for prohibited goods
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You'll get your fake timepiece (you cheap little fuck ;D.. jk).. But you may receive a bill from the CBSA for relevant taxation. Don't be surprised if they valuate the watch as if it is genuine and base their tax on that.
I have received Schedule F (Health Canada Food and Drugs Act) substances from India that was opened by the CBSA and held for 3 weeks before it's arrival. Why I received it I'm not sure, but it's something I want to get a import exemption on so I can import to resell on the North American market (with proper labeling this would be completely legal).