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Originally Posted by M-technik-3
Sure was, Traveling back on diplomatic passport not in uniform. had to explain why i had two pistols in checked baggage.
Lets just say it wasn't a long drawn out ordeal.
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Try bringing a case of 4 firearms into Communist China as a civilian. Even with all the paperwork I was detained for what seemed like an excessive amount of time. I don't speak Mandarin so it was a frustrating ordeal. Eventually they locked up my guns and I had limited access for my trip and had to check them in and out everyday under penalty of imprisonment.
On a separate incident in another country the head customs agent or whatever his title is was told me my documentation was fake and had to be verified and I would have to stay in this room for as long as it took. He kept looking at the documents over and over as if it was going to magically change. That's when I knew he was just looking for a bribe. Why tell me you know it's fake but still verify it? If it's fake then I'm an arms smuggler and you can arrest me right? This was a small poor country and my firearms were worth a few thousand each. Corruption is basically a way of life here.
He would come back to the room and pretend to have called my contact who issued the permits but no one knew about me or my firearms. I knew he was lying of course. I didn't have a phone, they wouldn't let me make any calls, and I was in the dark not knowing what was going to happen. I only knew I wasn't going to pay this crook. I don't know how much time had passed but it was enough to alarm my hosts since I never made it out of the airport. Eventually the crook walks back in and hands me my paperwork and tells me I'm free to go. Turns out my contact, who also happens to be a high ranking government official, called the customs agency to track me down. He probably got grilled pretty hard for trying to solicit a bribe from someone who's a guest of a major branch of the government.