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Casual international smuggling

No.1487549 View ViewReplyOriginalReport
I live in the United States. I want to buy live crabs of a species that is illegal to own here, and there are no sources within the US (they're invasive in Hawaii, but I know no one that lives there). They are for sale in India through several vendors.

https://www.indiamart.com/proddetail/mud-crab-seed-2851634223255.html

Is it possible to have these shipped here and for Customs to not notice? I might make payment in some form that does not attach my name to it (crypto, Visa gift card, dunno). I might even have Fedex do the shipping, so that there's no transfer to USPS (they sometimes inspect packages too, in additions to whatever Customs might do).

If I order the juvenile crabs, they can be tiny. Fingernail-sized or even smaller. The container for a few wouldn't be gigantic, wouldn't necessarily slosh. Fedex is quoting me up to about $200 to ship, with a 4 day transit time.

Would the seller have to be aware that I'm trying to duck customs? For instance, if they do something dumb like describe it as "live crabs" on the shipping invoice, Customs will almost certainly flag it... but if they just said those were paper documents, what are the chances that it would remain unopened? They can't open every package can they?

Where would I have it delivered, so that my name doesn't appear on records that could be looked up (and incriminate) years later?