www.CostaRicaTicas.com

Apparently there is a difference in the # of cartons you can purchase in the airport in SJO and the # you can bring through customs in the US. I asked the man in the Duty Free store how many cartons I could buy and he said 3. This surprised me because I had heard from a friend that the number was 4. When I got back to N.C. I was in for another surprise. The Customs agent asked if I had brought tobacco or alcohol with me and I said "yes, 2 bottles of alcohol and 3 cartons of cigarettes". He told me that I was only allowed 1 carton of smokes. Then he said, "This is your free pass...next time only bring 1 carton". Anyone else have something like this happen re: tobacco? BTW, $16 carton is a helluva deal for Camel Lights!

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"With foxes, we must play the fox." ~ Thomas Fuller

Duty free goods acording to US Customs is not taxed in the country its sold in and is for export only... But if your taking it back to the US in my experiences the threshold for Customs actually taking you into secondary and making you pay a duty is any number of cartons above six. I found out the paperwork they have to fill out is rather long and its the same amount of work they have to do just to hit you with a tarif of about abuck for each pack; or hit some one for a few hundred for commercial merchandise/ jewlery ect.... So smoke them if you have them and cram a few dozen cartons into you checked luggage..

I smoke Belmonts and buy them by the carton at Price Mart for about 10.00 which works out to a buck a pack. They are very similar to Marlbors.
LVSteve

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Just an old horney, fat gambler.

Last winter I brought 8 -750 ml's of booze and 4 cartons of Marlboros into NY from CR, I declared it and the customs guy let me thru.
IMYO bring and declare it within reason and they will not want to fill out the PW for a few bucks of duty.