Smuggling Quotes

“It’s not how fast you go but how far you go fast.”
― T. Rafael Cimino, Mid Ocean

“We think of agents, traffickers and facilitators as the worst abusers of refugees, but when they set out to extort from their clients, when they cheat them or dispatch them to their deaths, they are only enacting an entrepreneurial version of the disdain which refugees suffer at the hands of far more powerful enemies – those who terrorise them and those who are determined to keep them at arm’s length. Human traffickers are simply vectors of the contempt which exists at the two poles of the asylum seeker’s journey; they take their cue from the attitudes of warlords and dictators, on the one hand, and, on the other, of wealthy states whose citizens have learned to think of generosity as a vice.

[from the London Review of Books Vol. 22 No. 3 · 3 February 2000]”
― Jeremy Harding

“I hate the check-in staff at airports who ask stupid questions like, “Could anyone have put anything into your bag without you knowing?” The answer is obviously yes because if they’d put it in without me knowing I wouldn’t fucking know it, would I?”
― Karl Wiggins, Dogshit Saved My Life

“No human being could live in this wasted country, thought Mary, and remain like other people; the very children would be born twisted, like the blackened shrubs of broom, bent by the force of a wind that never ceased, blow as it would from east and west, from north and south. Their minds would be twisted, too, their thoughts evil, dwelling as they must amidst marshland and granite, harsh heather and crumbling stone.”
― Daphne du Maurier , Jamaica Inn

“What I wouldn’t give for a little old smuggling job.”
― Katherine McIntyre, An Airship Named Desire

“He asked us what we were doing, and our smuggler said, “Oh, nothing. We’re just hanging out”—as if lots of Americans in ninja suits loitered around Syria in the middle of the afternoon. We asked him if he had a cell phone. He didn’t, which meant we had twenty or thirty minutes to get back across the Turkish border.”
― Richard Engel, And Then All Hell Broke Loose: Two Decades in the Middle East

“De Beers set up a purchasing office in Monrovia in 1954 where they bought diamonds, with the intent of keeping as much of the diamond trade under its control as possible. However by 1956, while I was still in Monrovia, there were approximately 75,000 illegal miners, who were smuggling these valuable stones on a vast scale. At that time I was offered the opportunity to get involved in this bonanza, which I fortunately did not do since some of my friends who did, went missing never to be seen again. At that time I was the Captain of a Farrell Line’s coastal ship and made additional pocket money running booze into the Liberian interior. In those days when someone disappeared or fell off of the grid, as we would say, the chance that they would be found again was exceedingly slim. In 1984 the De Beers Group (SLST) from South Africa, sold its remaining shares, under duress, to the Precious Metals Mining Company controlled by Lebanese National, Jamil Sahid Mohamed Khalil, was a questionable local businessman, as well as a diamonds and commodities trader. He became known throughout the world’s diamond industry as a wheeler-dealer and a politician, influential in Sierra Leone, where the majority of the blood diamonds came from. In 1999, when South African mercenaries invaded Sierra Leone’s capital city Freetown, Jamil attempted to flee from this West African country but was stopped prior to leaving his home. During this altercation, one of Jamil’s sons was shot to death right in front of him. The following year, Jamil died of a stroke after having successfully made his way to Lebanon.”
― Captain Hank Bracker, The History of Liberia & West Africa

“• About the time I transitioned from being an emotionally disturbed teenager to a hardcore outlaw, I began to view the material world as a temporary illusion crippled by human boundaries.
• Torn between the freewheeling lifestyle of a smuggler and being an austere spiritual seeker, there was a lot to sort out.
• Being legal or illegal often depended upon what side of a border I was standing on.
• A quiet disposition, warmth and imagination are prerequisites that moderate the chaos in a smuggler’s life, so I reciprocated with a beatific smile of my own.
• As I became Americanized, the gap between my parents and me, even at such a tender age, had already grown to unmanageable proportions.
• Kneeling at my side to check my attitude, he brushed the snow from my face.
• God was some vague, powerful character that grown-ups harped on with varying degrees of reverent conviction.
• He thought the man should have a cyclopean eye or some other distinguishing characteristic that would make the situation more discernible.
• Mario made me feel like I belonged and I willfully flicked on the felonious switch.
• It made perfect sense to view everyone as a cop so I wouldn’t end up in Bangkok’s Klong Prem Central prison on Ngamwongwan Road.
• The pilot taxied us to the edge of the jungle where an old, dilapidated military jeep waited to take us to a place I was no longer sure I wanted to go.
• Ancient and deadly, Asia would grow on me like the jungle that swallows everything in it.
• He knew that I wasn’t being nurtured like other children, so he made it his personal mission to give me an edge.
• I had only wanted to escape the sour halitosis of middle-class decay and the dead-end ramblings of my philosophy professors at the University of Wisconsin.
• All the cells in my being were trying to shut their tiny little doors to keep out the sudden infestation of the dragon and his hordes of relentless devils.
• Philip was like a shooting star whose spectacular tail burned across the financial sky for decades.”
― Marjan., 600 Devils: From refugee to redemption, a life impacted by smuggling, cannabis, psychedelics, conmen, cops and assorted holy men.

“I am glad that this has happened, trebly--felix ter et amplius, my dear Edith; first, that a trade which enriches scoundrels to the detriment of the fair and lawful merchant, has received nearly its death-blow; secondly, that these audacious vagabonds, who fancied they had all the world at their command, and that they could do as they pleased in Kent, have been taught how impotent they are against a powerful hand and a clear head ; and, thirdly, that the most audacious vagabond of them all, who has amassed a large fortune by defiance of the law , and by a system which embodies cheatery with robbery--I mean robbery of the revenue with cheatery of the lawful merchant--has been the person to suffer. I have heard a great deal of forcing nations to abate their Customs dues, by smuggling in leaders taken or killed, and the amount of the smuggled goods which --with the usual exaggeration of rumour--was raised to three or four hundred thousand pounds, was universally reported to be the loss of Mr. Radford. His son had been seen by many in command of the party of contraband traders; and it was clear that he had fled to conceal himself, in fear of the very serious consequences which were likely to ensue.”
― George Payne Rainsford James, The Smuggler (Volumes I-III): A Tale

“You got some nerve, lady, coming into my office, accusing my staff or me of smuggling anything," he mean-mugged her. "I have good people working for me," he touted.”
― Sharon Carter, Love Auction III: When Love Finds You

“You know: the old plastic-bag-up-the-fanny routine. Do it when they’re on the blob and the sniffer dogs don’t smell it. An’ even if they do smell some-thin’ everyone’s too fuckin’ embarrassed to say anything.”
― Stuart MacBride, Cold Granite