furniture with secret compartments for guns contraband

The prosecution successfully argued that Anaya must have deduced from this that the trap was to be used for drug trafficking. The conviction relied on testimony that Anaya had seen one of his clients stash some $800,000 in cash in a trap. federal law as a co-conspirator in a drug-trafficking operation. In 2012, Alfred Anaya, famous among rich clients in California for his skill in installing sophisticated traps, was sentenced to more than 24 years in prison under U.S. The legality of traps is dependent on the jurisdiction in which they are used. car in 2012 would only open if a driver was in the seat, all doors were closed (to prevent the trap from opening during a roadside police search), the defroster was turned on and a magnetic card was swiped over a sensor hidden in an air-conditioning vent.

For example, one trap found in the airbag compartment of a U.S. More recent traps have no visible controls, are electronically controlled and may require complicated procedures for access. By the early 1990s, however, police had learned to detect such traps by looking for suspicious buttons and switches. In the early 1980s, the first magnetically or hydraulically actuated secret compartments, dubbed 'urban traps' by the Drug Enforcement Administration, started to appear – often in door panels, dashboards, seats and roofs. tended to be hidden in obvious places such as wheel wells or spare tires. Until the 1980s, drugs trafficked in cars in the U.S. But it can also be used to hide contraband, such as illegal drugs, from searches by authorities. It can be intended to hide legal items, such as handguns or valuables, from thieves. 'Trap' is a colloquial term for a secret compartment in an automobile. For a modified vehicle designed to trap car thieves, see bait car. Similarly, if a soldier is captured, the enemy expects that soldiers will have ammunition in their pockets, so little attention is paid, beyond confiscating and discarding it. Given that ammunition can be found everywhere in a combat zone, it is very easy to hide or discard such items because they blend in easily. A small piece of paper with writing on it can be stored inside. The hiding place is very easy to prepare: the bullet is removed from the cartridge and the propellant powder poured away. encryption/recognition codes or navigational grid references etc. Starting in the First World War and still continuing today, military personnel use ammunition casings to hide small amounts of critical information e.g. Examples in smuggling include suitcases with false bottoms for hiding contraband.ĭuring World War II MI9 was responsible for creating many concealment devices for 'escape aids' to assist prisoners of war to escape. The idea is that such an inconspicuous object would not be expected to contain anything of worth.Įxamples in espionage include dead drop spikes for transferring items to other people, and hollowed-out coins or hollowed out teeth for concealing something - such as microfilm or a suicide pill. They are made from an ordinary household object such as a book, a soda can, a candle, a can, or something as small as a coin. This was commonly done in World War II to hide radios from the German occupiers.Ĭoncealment devices or diversion safes are used to hide things for the purpose of secrecy or security. JSTOR ( August 2009) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message).Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.įind sources: 'Concealment device' – news

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Furniture with secret compartments for guns contraband