Customs Banditos

The Cabo San Luca Airport in Baja, Mexico, seems to be the only Mexican airport where customs agents enforce obscure and uncertain regulations, or perhaps just their personal regulations, to extract money from divers traveling with photo gear. Enforcement seems random, but if you're picked, you will pay, as did Michael Millett of Dublin, California.

"A customs agent directed me to run my bags through a scanner, and another declared my housing was a camera. I must pay a 19 percent sales tax. I opened the housing to show him it was just a metal waterproof box, not a camera. He said it, too, was subject to the sales tax.

"I said that per the Mexico website, tourists can bring in two cameras and 'camera gear,' and the housing was camera gear. He asked how much it was worth. I said it was over 12 years old for a no longer-made camera, and no one would buy it.

"He pressed me for a dollar amount, which I did not give him, then asked me for receipts for the housing. I asked if he had receipts for items that he purchased 12 years ago.

"He said the housing was not a camera accessory or gear but a separate item subject to sales tax. I asked him to show me on the customs website that a housing is such an item. He ignored my request and insisted I pay the tax.

"Realizing this was an exercise in futility, I asked how much he wanted me to pay so I could clear customs. He responded with $57. How he came up with this amount is inexplicable, but I paid and finally cleared customs."