Off to St. Croix USVI!

[Stormin691]

Gettin' out of town for a few days for some R&R and fishing on St.Croix- packing some Cuban goodies hope they dont get confiscated thru customs... Anyone have any packing suggestions or tricks that you use to get thru without any problems...? -Mike

[semery74]

Last time the wife and I went to Jamaica, I loaded my Pelican case full of goodies with the labels on. On the way home I remove the labels on all the unused sticks, they x-ray scanned our bags at Customs, only hesitating for a second, but then let us through without question. Their looking for boxes to gift to their friends, not singles.

Do they make you go through customs when visiting the US VI? I never went though customs going to Puerto Rico.

[Stormin691]

No customs going in to PR but heavy security at JFK- Shouldn't have a problem, right?

[semery74]

Dress well, act intelligent, and enjoy your vacation. It's illegal to import/purchase cuban goods, not possess them, if you are on US soil the whole time, then what can they possibly argue without speculating.

[Stormin691]

Thanks Campanas

[sepp]

It's illegal to import/purchase cuban goods, not possess them,

I believe your impression is mistaken as the US governemnt made it clearly known in 1996 that it is illegal to deal in (possession would be considered a form of dealing) cuban goods whether on US soil or not...

H.R.927

Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity (LIBERTAD) Act of 1996 (Enrolled as Agreed to or Passed by Both House and Senate)

SEC. 110. IMPORTATION SAFEGUARD AGAINST CERTAIN CUBAN PRODUCTS.

(a) PROHIBITION ON IMPORT OF AND DEALINGS IN CUBAN PRODUCTS- The Congress notes that section 515.204 of title 31, Code of Federal Regulations, prohibits the entry of,

and dealings outside the United States in, merchandise that--

(1) is of Cuban origin;

(2) is or has been located in or transported from or through Cuba; or

(3) is made or derived in whole or in part of any article which is the growth, produce, or manufacture of Cuba.

[semery74]

dealings outside the United States in, merchandise that--[/b]

If you want to interpret the law that way you can, but for me "Dealings" has nothing to do with possession. If they wanted to convey that, they would of included that exact verbage. If you look at from the perspective of the GOP and their constituents that wrote that law in response to Bill C. opening up Family travel and remittances back in the 90s. Then you would think they would not want to bury any of their Cuban constituents in Florida that probably possess a lot of Cuban origin merchandise.

n.

1 dealings Transactions or relations with others, usually in business.

2 an agreement with specific terms between two or more persons ...

3 Method or manner of conduct in relation to others; treatment: honest dealing.

[cabaiguan juan]

It doesn't matter how you define "dealings", all that matters is what the Customs/TSA person thinks. Don't think for a minute, that your definition of "dealings" will get your cigars back once they are taken.

Getting back to the question at hand, just take off the bands, it has worked coming back from Bermuda, and honestly, your coming back from a US held territory, so i doubt that customs will be putting astro-glyde on the rubber gloves to find what illegale goods you might be smuggling in from... a US territory. Act as iff they are NC cigars that you brought from home and didn't smoke while on vacation, cuz, for all they know, thats what happened.

[Stormin691]

Thanks thats what I'll do!