Adiplomatic bag, also known as adiplomatic pouch, is a container with certain legal protections used for carrying official correspondence or other items between adiplomatic mission and its home government or other diplomatic, consular, or otherwise official entity.[1] The physical concept of a "diplomatic bag" is flexible and it can take many forms (e.g., acardboard box,briefcase,duffel bag, largesuitcase,crate or even ashipping container).[1]
Additionally, a diplomatic bag usually has some form of lock and/ortamper-evident seal attached to it to deter or detect interference by unauthorized third parties. The most important point is that as long as it is externally marked to show its status, the container hasdiplomatic immunity from search or seizure,[2] as codified in article 27 of the 1961Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.[3] It may only contain articles intended for official use,[3] though there have been numerous cases where the privileges of the diplomatic bag have been used to facilitatesmuggling. Bags are often escorted by adiplomatic courier, who is similarly immune from arrest and detention.[2][3]
Triplex was a British espionage operation inWorld War II which involved secretly copying the contents of diplomatic pouches of neutral countries.
In 1964, a Moroccan-bornIsraeli double agent namedMordechai Louk was drugged, bound, and placed in a diplomatic mailing crate at theEgyptian Embassy inRome, but was rescued by Italian authorities.[4][5] The box that he had been sealed into "had almost certainly been used before for human cargo,"[6] including possibly for an Egyptian military official who had defected to Italy several years before but then disappeared without a trace before reappearing under Egyptian custody and facing trial.
During the 1982Falklands War, the Argentine government used a diplomatic bag to smuggle severallimpet mines to their embassy in Spain, to be used in the covertOperation Algeciras, in which Argentine agents were to blow up a British warship in theRoyal Navy Dockyard atGibraltar. The plot was uncovered and stopped by the Spanish police before the explosives could be set.[7]
In the 1984Dikko Affair, a formerNigerian government minister,Umaru Dikko, was kidnapped and placed in a shipping crate in an attempt to transport him from the United Kingdom back to Nigeria for trial.[5] However, it was not marked as a diplomatic bag, which allowed British customs to open it.[5]
In March 2000,Zimbabwe became the object of international political attention when it opened a British diplomatic shipment.[2]
In May 2008, a replacement pump for thetoilet on theInternational Space Station was sent in a diplomatic pouch from Russia to the United States to arrive before liftoff of the next shuttle mission.[9]
In 2012, a 16 kilograms (35 lb) shipment of cocaine was sent to the United Nations in New York in a bag disguised as a diplomatic pouch.[10]
In January 2012, Italy detected 40 kilograms (88 lb) of cocaine smuggled in a diplomatic pouch from Ecuador, arresting five. Ecuador insisted it had inspected the shipment for drugs at the foreign ministry before it was sent to Milan.[11]
In November 2013, theUK government alleged that a British diplomatic bag had been opened by theGuardia Civil at theGibraltar-Spanish border, sparking a formal diplomatic protest.[12] The Spanish government responded that the bag, being transported from theGovernor of Gibraltar by a courier company, and contained in a mailbag that held other packages, did not meet the criteria of being in transit between a diplomatic mission and a home government.[13][14]
