Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Buy chemicals and equipments online will customs confiscate?

TmNhRhMgBrSe - 12-6-2020 at 18:39

If I buy chemicals and equipments online will customs confiscate? I afraid they will confiscate any they think suspicous (but legal) things, like rubbish police confiscate laser pens say they are "assault weapon" wor.

aab18011 - 12-6-2020 at 20:24

Quote: Originally posted by CELamCheng  
If I buy chemicals and equipments online will customs confiscate? I afraid they will confiscate any they think suspicous (but legal) things, like rubbish police confiscate laser pens say they are "assault weapon" wor.


Depending on the country, the laws vary. Here in the US, you can technically buy anything that matches the DEA's watched lab equipment list, but they cant outright take it. Its not illegal. However, if you order something that violates the shipping companies rules, they are fully allowed to take it, but they must give it back to the company. So they cannot outright take it from you, but they can deny delivery. However, that's the US. I know that other countries definitely have lots of laws regarding chem equipment. For example, Australia has really odd laws, and they even vary highly between states.

Refinery - 14-6-2020 at 07:22

The laser device ban comes from EU afaik, apart from local law. Where I live, it is the same thing, if customs notice a laser pointer over 1mW, they will confiscate it.

Some themselves legal substances can trigger police though. Where I live, practically all chemicals themselves, are legal to order, own and sell by the law, excluding the ones that are listed as explosive precursors, pharmaceutical agents or actual narcotic substances. I know a guy who ordered a kg of mercury from some remote asian country and the customs were just like "in which category this goes to" and signed it off. On the other hand, I know people who have ordered common nitrates and got raided because of "suspected intent to commit" an act that endangers the public. If everything is ok, you will only have to deal with the huge mess, and they may destroy the confiscated stuff and then you can attempt to get compensation my appealing to court, otherwise they'll be just "fuck you and your rights, we are the police and we do what we want and even when found guilty, acquitted, so what'ya gonna do".

I personally have a registered company, so whatever they'll come up, I just say that it's for business and they can't do shit about it because entrepreneurship is a constitutional right in my country and the liabilities for losses are much easier to show up.

In some countries, states and sub-states even glassware can be restricted. Some chemicals can be outright banned because of some apparent misuse. Some chemicals and items can be banned from the general public, but are freely available to a company. Poland should have somewhat uniform laws with EU.

Precursors are a grey area between - they are usually legal, but buying them - in some instances in amounts exceeding some treshold - will trigger paper trail, and you may get an actual knock on door. Same goes with certain combinations of chemicals - we all probably know if we list a few common ones together that immediately triggers a red flag about the purpose. Some are outright stupid, and for example a list of 20 chemicals that contained various solvents, including acetone, and then other stuff, and between them was hydrogen peroxide - someone immediately drew them together and, oh well, here we go. Not that they happen to be one of the most common reagents in any lab or even manufacturing environment and that same list contained many things that were much more nasty. I actually went a long ahead by lecturing them about that I do certainly know that, and quite a lot more baddies can be churned out of those 20, and eventually they dropped the case when an actual forensic chemist noted that they were actually the top 20 most used lab reagents. It's like buying a knife, duct tape and some trash bags from a hardware store that initiates a murder investigation.

[Edited on 14-6-2020 by Refinery]

Syn the Sizer - 14-6-2020 at 07:32

In Canada it is pretty laid back from what I have seen. I ordered a huge set of glassware from China and customs cut tape off the lid opened and then closed it. not 1 piece of glassware was touched. they even sent a note apologizing for breaking the corner of my lid.

I would look into your local laws.

TmNhRhMgBrSe - 21-6-2020 at 23:56

I not in EU. We didnt ban laser here.

NaK - 13-8-2020 at 14:00

German customs ignore glassware from china. I never had one of also pretty big deliveries opened ever, they always get the little green sticker. I am pretty sure they will look closely at everything that is powdered, the risk that it is drugs or explosives is just too big. They also go for bigger metal objects.

[Edited on 13-8-2020 by NaK]

JJay - 13-8-2020 at 14:36

I've never had anything seized by US customs. I am pretty sure they photograph every package that is imported and keep records of the declarations, but they rarely open the packages. When they do, they'll seal things up with green tape. One time, they actually did an analysis on a chemical that I imported, and they left a copy of the report in the package. That was a long time ago, it's only happened once out of hundreds of packages.

I know I probably sound like a stark raving madman, but I am pretty sure the police sometimes watch my house and follow me around when I import glassware from China. I've seen too many weird coincidences, such as unmarked police interceptors illegally parked within line of sight when packages are delivered, and also, when I first ordered my kit, I met someone who seemed like he was obviously a cop, and at some point, the conversation turned to chemistry. When I told him that I practiced chemistry as a hobby, he turned unfriendly and told me that he was a cop and that he was assigned to investigate me and that I'd better not try anything. That was pretty much the end of the conversation, and I never saw him again. I've never had any actual problems, but I would suggest not importing glassware from China for illegal purposes.

NaK - 13-8-2020 at 15:52

Quote: Originally posted by JJay  

I know I probably sound like a stark raving madman, but I am pretty sure the police sometimes watch my house and follow me around when I import glassware from China. I've seen too many weird coincidences, such as unmarked police interceptors illegally parked within line of sight when packages are delivered, and also, when I first ordered my kit, I met someone who seemed like he was obviously a cop, and at some point, the conversation turned to chemistry. When I told him that I practiced chemistry as a hobby, he turned unfriendly and told me that he was a cop and that he was assigned to investigate me and that I'd better not try anything. That was pretty much the end of the conversation, and I never saw him again. I've never had any actual problems, but I would suggest not importing glassware from China for illegal purposes.


I find that interesting, is it so hard to for them to get a search warrant in the US that they actually do undercover surveillance?

JJay - 13-8-2020 at 19:37

As I understand it, most of what I have seen is more like what I would call plainclothes surveillance. Undercover surveillance would be undetectable. They wouldn't be required to use police model cars for their operations. Any cop can do plainclothes operations or drive an unmarked police car, but only specially trained and equipped cops can do undercover operations.

They'd have to have evidence of a crime to get a search warrant.