How would they know a human (under narcotics) is in the big heavy box? Can they know? Are there scans performed on big cargo?
I assume for container ships it gets heavy checks because it’s usually going overseas, but what about packages sent within the same country? Is it just unnecessary to do it this way because cartels can move them by car themselves?
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The challenges are on two sides:
The first is that there are scans and checks. A lot of automation happens in the more modern ports (which would generally be favored destinations for any human trafficking) like xrays and scans. There are also patrols and other inspections. The penalties are high for human traficking and if you ship containers as a company: you want to be able to continue to do so, so there are a lot of incentives to not do anything illegal.
The second is that humans have needs. They need to breathe, they need to poop/pee, they need water and they need food. None of those primary necessities are really taken care of in a shipping container. And going by sea can take a really long time. Even when you are drugged out of your mind: your body still needs nutrition in order to survive so you’d need an IV or something. Which really means a lot of logistics to get someone across alive (which would be the goal) which also means a lot of cost. You’d have to smuggle someone in to a container and get it on a ship (as per the first point: ship captains don’t want to be human traffickers generally) then you need to keep them alive for x number of days, if not weeks, then you need to somehow get them out of the secure area that is the port. Ports tend to have guards, with dogs that patrol: so getting out is a challenge as well.
Smuggling people is hard, and unless you have a purpose for them: not that profitable. If you think about it: if you really want to force people in to something by smuggling them, you really don’t need to go and go through all that trouble. You could find people closer to home, I can’t think of a single continent that would not have a part of it where people are desperate/impoverished or already (illegally) migrated where criminals could take advantage of them. No need to ship people.
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