Crap!! Even shipping IN state will end up crossing state lines!!

[Jabberwocky Dragons]

It was late and I can see how the word willfully was misconstrued. Like I said before though, you apparently were not keeping up with the entire thread.

I was certainly not saying that this was a case of ignorance to the law. Let me break this down for you again since you obviously still dont get it.

It was brought up that from here on out, if you shipped a burm or such through FedEx, intrastate, that BECAUSE YOU READ THIS FORUM, that you would now have knowledge of FedEx taking your package outside of the state line. Because of this, you would be guilty.

I was simply pointing out that if you are shipping a snake INTRASTATE. From one address in a state to another IN THE SAME STATE, you are NOT breaking a law. Just because you read that FedEx MAY OR MAY NOT actually step over a state line with your package still does not constitute any legal wrong doing on your part.

" If a snake belonging to you goes across state lines, they can prosecute you. Doesn't matter if you try to pin it on Fed Ex. "

Now, stay with me here... Say you ship a burm from Dallas Tx to Marshal Tx ( Marshal is close to the Louisiana border ) using a local shipping service who doesnt have a processing center outside of the state. So no reason for it not to go straight down I-20 to its destination. Now, say the driver of that van decides he wants to make a pit stop to a little place he likes to go for lunch right on the other side of the border of Louisiana. So he does. With your snake in the back. Did you just commit a felony ? Of course not ! So my question is this... what is the difference between this and using FedEx ? The fact that they may or may not take your package outside the state ? How would you know they are though ? This isnt an issue of not having knowledge of the law, its an issue of not knowing what FedEx's shipping practices are. They are choosing to take packages outside of the state they are being shipped in. Not you.

Im still not convinced that FedEx takes every package to processing centers outside of state lines.

Oh, and WTF are you talking about ? It is FAR from a felony or illegal for that matter to deposit 10k into a bank account without documentation.

Of course FedEx doesnt ALLOW people to illegally ship wine. But when someone comes in and is shipping tons of bottles of " olive oil " from a local winery, is it on FedEx to open the box and make sure it is olive oil ? Of course not because they could care less. In that situation, the shipper is breaking the law. Not FedEx. They would not be held responsible.

I'm not sure why you expend the effort to create scenarios that don't exist since you could apparently care less about this topic. You seem so sure about who commits a crime and who doesn't. There's no reason the government wouldn't or couldn't charge the shipper and transporter in your above scenario. They can do what they please and the careers of prosecutors advance based on the number of successful prosecutions.

I suppose if you nicely explained to the judge and prosecutor that the law doesn't apply to you, just to the physical transporter, they would realize their error and quietly drop the case .

You have no knowledge of how often Fed Ex alerts the gov't to illegally shipped wine or how often they are fined if caught by gov't inspectors for facilitating a crime but you speak with sure knowledge about their business as if you were a Fed Ex executive.

To answer your other question, it is illegal to use more than 10k in cash, in any transaction without documentation. The Bank Secrecy Act require banks to report anyone depositing 10k in cash or in smaller amounts to the government for investigation and prosecution. Other anti money laundering acts provide the same rules for any other transaction, such as using cash to buy a house or car... or high-end ball pythons. If you can prove you paid tax on the money, you will probably get off with a misdemeanor.

There were several people on the news who were charged with this last month for depositing more than 10k in cash with taxes paid (but no documentation). These cases were used as an example of how intent no longer matters when committing a crime.