I’ve been watching older movies from the 80s, 90s and early 00s. And tonight I’m watching “The Jackal” starring Richard Gere and Bruce Willis. During the movie the assassin (The Jackal) has a remoted operated gatling gun smuggled into Montreal, and has a remote operating rig manufactured for it (by Jack Black!). He then smuggles this into the USA by sailing across the Great Lakes in a boat. What would prevent somebody from doing that for real? Is there customs/security at ports on the Great Lakes? If an American sails out from say Chicago, and returns to Chicago, do they have to pass through anything?
There are so many places you could land a boat that I don’t think it’d be possible to have anything like a normal “customs point”.* The Coast Guard could potentially catch a smuggler, but I think the main thing that prevents smuggling is that mostly the same things are allowed and prohibited in the US and Canada, and the enforcement is similar: Anything you could smuggle from Canada to the US, you could just get in the US in the first place.
*I used to be a camp counselor at a museum in Cleveland. We had all sorts of procedures for parents picking up their kids in the lot in front of the museum… but once, a parent literally picked up their kid in a boat, which they parked about 50 feet from one of the doors of the museum (closer than they’d have even been able to park a car).
It’s roughly 20 km from St Martin (at Friar’s Beach) to Anguilla. I’ve kayaked about 1/4 of the way and could see doing it as a day trip. But if the police stopped me on the street on Anguilla I would be in trouble as an illegal alien(?).
If you ferry across it’s an hour trip and you have to show your passport and do entry paperwork.
We have a friend who lives in Anguilla. When we last saw her (pre pandemic) she texted asking us to come to Anguilla, as she had an outstanding traffic fine on St Martin and thought they might hassle her if she came to us.
For many years there was a substantial smuggling operation from NY state to Canada across the St. Lawrence. Indian Reserves straddle the river, and the police did not generally interfere with the local operations, so organized crime found it very convenient to smuggle cigarettes wholesale. Canada has a substantial tax on cigarettes compared to the USA, and additionally treaties (going back well over 100 years) say that natives are exempt from taxation or import duties for their “personal” possessions.
Back 100+ years ago, bootlegging liquor was also a lucrative business.
But this points to another issue - why cross the lake, where the vessel is visible for a long distance? There are plenty of places where the crossing is just a river, or even a ditch or someone’s living room.
OTOH, 9-11 has motivated the US border Patrol to install plenty of remote monitoring technology where they thing illegal migrants and potential terrorists could be trying to sneak into the country. (Although it seems the flow is often the other way). For example, favourite walking paths across the border are allegedly monitored with footfall detectors and other tech.
So for the OP’s question, you can always try. Maybe you will get away with it, but don’t count on it. AFAIK, like flying in a small plane, the onus is on the person entering to seek out border controls.
Interesting. Thanks for the answers. I guess this is one thing Hollywood didn’t get wrong.
FWIW, and off topic:
I was warned off this movie, said to be a vapid effort loosely inspired by the outstanding 1973 film The Day of the Jackal.
Great Lakes Science Center?
It isn’t very good for sure. I’ve just been watching movies that are available for streaming from the 80s, 90s and 00s, just for kicks. I certainly wouldn’t recommend it. 
The Day of the Jackal is much better.
And the book is better still.
I haven’t read the book, but I have a back list of about 30ish (fun, i.e., non-scientific) books to read so I’m hesitant to add more.
Yup. It wouldn’t surprise me if something similar had ever happened at the Rock Hall, but you might have picked up on subtle clues that I’m more into science than into rock.
Smuggling alcohol across lakes from Canada into the U.S. during Prohibition was made easier during winter when they were iced over, but miscalculations occurred. This mishap involved a truck crossing Lake St. Clair from Ontario to Detroit.
That’s super cool!
I think it is an excellent movie if for nothing more then the technical fascination of that cannon and remote control mount. And who doesn’t like to see Jack Black’s arm blown off?
Jack Black’s character is certainly a highlight of the movie.
Anytime I see a picture like that I show it to my gf to see if anyone looks familiar. On her mom’s side of the family there were several people who transported and sold liquor during prohibition.
I’m not sure about that… Vehicles capable of crossing a liquid lake are not a new technology. And a truck driving across a frozen lake in winter is a lot more conspicuous than a boat sailing across a liquid lake in summer. An ice-truck might have the advantage that you could just drive onto a beach and up on to land without needing to transfer cargo from one vehicle to another, but that requires you to land at a beach, most of which are also in fairly conspicuous locations.