Modern Guerrilla War: Smuggling Tactics

Smuggling

Smuggling may include the smuggling of weapons, equipment, people, documents, food, fuel, etc., in or out of some particular place, such as smuggling a person out of prison or a smuggling a weapon into prison.

Hidden inside the spare tire of a car or truck.

Establish relations with individuals in the airline or airport, shipping or trucking business with the intent of smuggling.

Weapons can be hidden in trucks underneath the regular loads of goods such as vegetables, fruit, or household goods.

Donkeys, mules, and horses can be used to smuggle items over rough terrain, bypassing enemy check points.

Gas tank taken off vehicle, cut open, item hidden in gas tank. Gas tank resealed and placed on vehicle.

Hollowed false leg used to smuggle small items.

Hollowed out items like plastic toys with powder or plastic explosives hidden inside.

Explosive powder disguised as flower, sugar, pepper, etc., put in appropriate bags.

A secret underground pipeline can be used to smuggle fuel from one area to another.

If not frisked at the airport, bus station, border crossing, etc., a small bag of money, documents, computer disks, etc. can be taped or strapped to the body and smuggled. The item or items should not be capable of setting off metal detectors, explosive detectors, dogs, etc.

Secret tunnels can used to smuggle weapons and equipment and even people. Modern day examples of this include tunnels used to smuggle drugs and people along the U.S. and Mexican border, Palestinian smuggling tunnels along the Egypt and Gaza border, and North Korean tunnels used to sneak Special Forces, and even tanks and infantry units into South Korea.

Coffee can be used to fool sniffer dogs.

Smuggling By Sea

Smuggling on Ships

An arms smuggling ship can secretly offload weapons off the coast, not at a port. Weapons can be placed on smaller boats, inflatable rafts, etc. and brought ashore. The arms can then be hidden nearby or loaded into trucks, cars, etc, and transported to a secret arms depot. If the shipment is large, weapons should be divided into multiple arms depots or weapons caches. If one of the caches is discovered, all of the weapons and equipment will not be lost.

26 July 1914- Famous Howth gun smuggling event in which 900 Mauser rifles were smuggled to Howth harbor in Ireland for Irish Volunteers.

Smuggling program used by LTTE (Tamil Tigers)
The KP branch, named after Kumaran Pathmanathan (real name Selvarasa Pathmanathan), was an international arms smuggling ring responsible for LTTE arms shipments from 1983 to 2002.
The KP branch purchased and shipped 60 tons of explosives (50 tons of TNT and 10 tons of RDX) from the Rubezone Chemical plant in the Ukraine in 1994 using a forged Bangladeshi Ministry of Defense end-user certificate.
The KP branch also stole 32,400 81mm mortar rounds the Sri Lankan government purchased from Tanzania. Being aware of the purchase of 35,000 mortar bombs, the LTTE made a bid to the manufacturer through a numbered company and arranged a vessel of their own to pick up the load. Once the bombs were loaded into the ship, the LTTE changed the name and registration of their ship. The vessel was taken to Tiger-held territory in Sri Lanka's north instead of transporting it to its intended destination
After the entire leadership of the LTTE was killed in 2009, Pathmanathan assumed the leadership role. Pathmanathan was arrested in Malaysia on August 5, 2009, along with several other Tamil activists.

Smuggling on Submarines or Submersibles

Modern day examples of this include Colombian drug dealers use of small submarines and submersibles to traffic narcotics, and North Korean midget submarines used to sneak Special Forces and agents into South Korea.