Originally posted by Florida Dude
it means they’ve heard of SECURITY and CUSTOMS, something lacking on arrival at LGW nowadays, there are no persons at the “something to declare” area.

Most of the customs work is done well before you know about it. Nowadays the customs at LGW and LHR send sniffer dogs onto your bags as soon as they get taken into the luggage area. These dags have been trained to smell different items…. ie some can smell money, others can smell lots of tobacco. It is very rare for anybody to carry large amounts of money in the suitcases and the dogs pick up the smell, when the cases have been ‘tagged’ they are watched and you will see customs at the exit. Loads of people bring in fags, and the dogs have been trained to ‘tag’ the strongest smell. Its very clever what and how it happens.

Other times you will see customs at the gate is at selected times when certain flights have landed. Recently a mate of mine (security at LGW) told me about a gang of blokes flying to Tenneriffe every week with almost empty suitcases, they have light cloths in them so the x-ray sees it. When they got to Tenneriffe they buy 1000’s of fags and fill the cases up. They had been watched for a couple weeks at LGW and at Tenneriffe and finally caught.

So next time you dont see anyone at the exit gate, your cases have already been sniffed!