UPS shipping busted?

[nowaydude]

Maybe or maybe not
I order grow equipment from Canada. The equipment is one day late so I track it on the internet. The eqiupment is sitting in a city 120 miles away for an extra day. I have done unrelated business with UPS many times without any problems like this. The next day I arrive home and see the package on my front door. The first thing I noticed was that it was tampered with. somebody had opened and taped it back up. I walk inside my house with it and 5 minutes later the cops are knocking at the door.They asked to search and I said no.

Two hours later the house is raided with a search warrant for marijuana plants . The search warrant is obtained based on a anonymous tip and a strong odor when I answered the front door. The plants turned out to be small (6-8 inches) immature plants with just leaves. It would have been impossible to smell these plants from the front door.

Anybody else out there had problems like this with a shipping company?I still don't know for sure if it was ups but I suspect it was.

[Wilbur]

^ haven't you heard, drugs = terrorists. 'they' get away with what 'they' want.

[nowaydude]

Originally Posted by MajorBongHit

Holy shit dude. I dont know the law system up in Canada... But they def. wouldnt get away with tampering with your mail. No way in hell. Besides that they didnt "REALLY" even have probable cause to search your house.

Next time meet them outside and close the door behind you.

The package came from Canada. I live in the United States. My attorney tells me that shipping companies can't do that but in the next breath told me it would be impossible to prove since it was an anonymous tip.

Actually they can look inside of any package they want but they can't use that kind of information in a court of law unless they had a search warrant for that package which they didn't. Maybe it was a homeland security thing but that doesn't mean it was right to call in with a tip. Maybe this is just all a coincidence and it was somebody I knew who called. It's just odd that right after I walked in with package the cops show up at my door.

[nowaydude]

Originally Posted by MajorBongHit

Holy shit dude. I dont know the law system up in Canada... But they def. wouldnt get away with tampering with your mail. No way in hell. Besides that they didnt "REALLY" even have probable cause to search your house.

Next time meet them outside and close the door behind you.

l
I did not let the cops in and did close the door behind me. We waited outside for 2 hours for the search warrant.

Yeah I was wrong about looking into the package for a tip or whatever. But it wouldnt be allowed in court (like you said..) with out a warrent.

Thats too bad man... Cant even have your own mail secret these days... Fuck what this world is coming to... And like User said... "they" can get away with anything "they" want... And it makes me sick just to admit that.

If the CIA wanted to kill one of us right now... They would do it without hesitation and NEVER get charged for it.

[nowaydude]

The story even gets better or shall I say worse,

Two months later while out on bond several different cops return to my home with the same claims about strong odor of MJ growing when I opened the door and an anonymous tip. Again the police get a search warrant but this time the warrant doesn’t specify anything about an anonymous tip. The warrant just states that they came by to follow up on another tip and the BS strong odor claim.This time they bring a swat team dressed in black and more weapons than I have ever seen in one place. They find absolutely nothing. Not even a roach or a seed. They completly ram sacked my place and broke a few things before leaving.

[nowaydude]

Originally Posted by andrew199@fro

SUE THEM!thats fuckin bullshit that they can rip apart ur house for basicly no reason.That's sweet they did not find any thing, That must of really pissed them off! I'm not a lawyer or anything, but just does not sound right that they can get search warrant's with no actual probable cause.Get urself a good lawyer man I think you can beat this shit, especially if your growing for your own personal use.

My attorney says that an anonymous tip alone generally isn't enough but the so called strong odor and the tip was enough to get a warrant. Both were fabricated. How would a UPS employee know how many plants I might have? The warrant described approximately 200 marijuana plants but it was only 63 really small plants. The strain I used was popular because it had no scent until 3 weeks into the budding cycle. The police manufactured a story around the fact that I had just purchased grow equipment.

The second time they raided my house proves their is a conspiracy at the cop shop to fabricate probable cause when investigating. Yes I have a civil case but ruffling feathers is not a good idea at this stage. I have been out on bond for 2 years and have not been formally charged. This long waiting period probably means the case has holes in it. Actually this case may not strong enough to go forward with.

Since that time I have graduated from college and I am about to start a new career. I am just stressing because they have 3 more years to file this case.

[StonerGrower]

thats why i dont order from EBAY or any other site for that matter....unless it is in fact a botany site that sells growin equipment for "legal" plants...in this case if they searched your package for all they know your growing tomatoes...now assuming its for marijuana is a different thing...but anyway...that why you should go to local shops ...i.e home depot for your equipment ...you know exactly what you bought and whos been through it and who hasnt...

[nowaydude]

Originally Posted by stonergrower4

thats why i dont order from EBAY or any other site for that matter....unless it is in fact a botany site that sells growin equipment for "legal" plants...in this case if they searched your package for all they know your growing tomatoes...now assuming its for marijuana is a different thing...but anyway...that why you should go to local shops ...i.e home depot for your equipment ...you know exactly what you bought and whos been through it and who hasnt...

Yes I agree or at least now I do

Also don't order from Canada or any other country besides the US and never have anything shipped to your home

[realtalgrower]

Originally Posted by nowaydude

never have anything shipped to your home

Words to live by. Never have anything delivered at your "grow house"

[Frank_Dawson6]

Damn dude, that sucks, that just goes to show that you cant trust the internet, your proably best off to just go to the local head shop, even if 100 miles away, and get stuff there, which is way better off then getting busted by the police.

[SmokeWeed]

FUCKING PIGS

[CynCritter]

UPS or any other carrier has the right to inspect ANY package for any reason.

In California we're no longer allowed to ship a wine basket privately "because it contains glass that could harm a UPS employee if dropped and broken" we're told ... but that's not really true. It's because California wine growers now can export from California vinyards, which they were not able to do until a couple of years ago, and they have curtailed the consumer's ability to ship one or 2 bottles of wine privately. This took affect in April of 2005.

But what's really stupid about that Law is, I was told if I would empty out the wine from the bottle, I could send the bottle as a collector's item. Which I did. So there went the defense that if the glass was broken, it could harm the employee. People ship glass containers via UPS, DHL, and USPS all the time.

On the manifest the Canadians completed to import the box into the USA they had to stipulate the contents. I have no doubt that someone in Customs saw the description of the box, opened it, reported it to DHS, and was instructed to go ahead and let you take delivery of it so they could watch you take it into your home ... and then, based on photos of you taking it inside you house, obtained the search warrant.

[CynCritter]

Originally Posted by Khuluna

Pshbt. Whenever I send stuff in and out of Canada, I always just bullshit it. When smuggling 700USD, I stuffed it inside a wallet hidden in a candy box. What the manifest said: "Shipment of Kasugai Kiwi Gummies."

You can ALWAYS lie on those things. If you're sending anything out of country, though, always make sure it's something like "Items left over from recent move"

Ah, but now Customs Officials are using drug sniffing dogs and equipment, at Border Crossings, in airports, AND for packages moving from place-to-place. Of course nothing is perfect ... yet. But why risk it? It's not worth the anguish, the loss of items shipped and the subsequent hassles.

Practically ANYTHING you can get "cheaper" but have to have it shipped, can be purchased within 50-100 miles of where any of us live. With good research, some gas, and a little personal sacrifice of time you can make life a whole lot less aggravating, as long as you make sure you don't have a tail light or a head light out, drive the speed limit, don't get in an accident, and DON'T SMOKE or have product inside your vehicle that can be smelled if you're pulled over.

Common sense is the best advice anyone can give.

[The Mad Toker]

I never order anything even remotely cannabis related from out of country as I am just too paranoid. At least in Canada from what I know any domestic packages when shipped via a private carrier can be opened at anytime without a search warrant under the guise of seeing if there are any hazerdous materials being shipped. However Canadapost they have to obtain a search warrant which costs money and alot of time so 99.9% of the time they dont give a rats ass about what goes through. There's alot of mail order marijuana services in canada that take advantage of this. Also even when ordering random stuff out of country I always get it shipped via the post office as private companies tend to put on a whole bunch of extra duties and fees on packages when shipped internationally. UPS is really bad for this as I had to pay almost $60 in fees before they would release a package to me that was valued at $100 or so.