Cuban cigars (totally off topic)

[Chavster]

Unusual question I know, but I'm not sure who else to ask. A friend of mine in Texas has asked me to send him some Cuban cigars. I can buy them without any problem here, but wont either he or I get arrested if I send them to him? 

I would imagine the Cuban embargo applies even if someone sends something Cuban into the US from Europe, but before I buy them and send them, I want to be sure I'm not going to get sent to Alcatraz or somewhere

[tomgallagher]

Maybe some of our members in the legal fraternity will be able to answer that but my son just bought a couple of boxes in Havana and flew to Jamaica for a couple of days and then on to Miami and didn't have any problem at all. Just sayin'.

[Chavster]

Hmmm, interesting. Thanks for that. I dont see the appeal of Cubans myself but I'd like to send them to my friend if I can, but only if neither of us get sent to the chair

[D.A.L.U.I.]

Relax, Alcatraz isn't operated as a prison anymore.  Years, and years ago while on a field trip from boarding school, we were passing over the bridge to San Francisco and someone told Franco, a student from Costa Rica, that if he thought we had it bad, that St. Alcatraz was a really strict boarding school.  He looked at the guy a little funny and said, "St. Seagull--never heard of him!"

[tomgallagher]

Speaking of Alcatraz, I used to really like to sit up in the "Top of the Mark" at night with a fist full of bourbon and watch the rotating beacon out there slowly blinking.

[Chavster]

I like to force some bourbon down my throat once in a while too

[Slynito]

Been allover Cuba and had a lot of fun, met some fine people, seen some beautiful places and smoked those delicious Cohibas. Usually flew back into Miami from a third country. Customs has checked me only a couple times and all they do is confiscate the fine cigars or rum. If you go through Nassau you'll go through US Customs there. The laws that were in effect under Bush/Cheney have been reformed this year. We can only hope that the 50 year old failed embargo is completely struck down soon. I suggest if you send cigars that you wrap them with another gift, shirt, socks, UK flag and put that on the customs declaration and not cigars. Know what I'm sayin'?

[Chavster]

I do, and thank you

[Magoo]

I do, and thank you

 " Don't do the crime If you can't do the time." 

[Chavster]

Thats also true

[Razor X]

Are Cuban cigars really that much better or is it just a matter of people wanting what they can't have?

[tomgallagher]

Are Cuban cigars really that much better or is it just a matter of people wanting what they can't have?

That's about right.

[Chavster]

Are Cuban cigars really that much better or is it just a matter of people wanting what they can't have?

Im not sure. Here, they're freely available, so on your side of the water, there could well be an element of guys wanting what they cant have.

I smoke a cigar once in a while (I dont smoke anything else, never have done), but Cubans do nothing for me.

[Slynito]

It would be very simple to go to a post office in the UK and tell them that you want to mail some Cubanos to the US and ask their opinion. Or pack a box in your luggage when you next fly to the US. Are they going to check a Usonian coming from the UK? Customs confiscates the cigars if your caught, they don't arrest...they save the cigars for their politician friends. Have you ever been checked when coming from the UK or Europe? I haven't. He!! every country in the world is against the Embargo except Israel, the Marshals and the US, according to the UN resolutions.

[Chavster]

It would be very simple to go to a post office in the UK and tell them that you want to mail some Cubanos to the US and ask their opinion. Or pack a box in your luggage when you next fly to the US. Are they going to check a Usonian coming from the UK? Customs confiscates the cigars if your caught, they don't arrest...they save the cigars for their politician friends. Have you ever been checked when coming from the UK or Europe? I haven't.

The postal service in the UK split into two entities. Royal Mail, and Post Office. When you go to mail something, you take the package to the Post Office, and they will accept anything you give them, without any question. Its only when the package hits Royal Mail that they then run security checks on the packages, especially those going to the US. What security checks they run, I'm not sure, but I know they can check for things like organic material and aerosol cans, neither of which they'll ship, and if cigars fall into the organic material category, then they wont ship them. Its not a US embargo thing, it would be an agricultural safety thing.

As for being checked, I'm stopped by US customs every time I enter the US. They see a US passport, birthplace California, being held by an English guy that looks like a middle eastern thug, and I think their suspicions are aroused. So I always get stopped, my bags always get checked, so I wouldnt bring cigars into the US unless they were non-cuban, because I dont think I'd like prison food too much