To Catch a Smuggler shows the work of real customs agents, and it is unlikely that the show would have the resources to fake its investigations.
To Catch a Smuggler may not always get the full story and the documentary series certainly amps up the drama. But it does depict real customs agents and the cases that they investigate.
Is To Catch a Smuggler real?
Watching a few consecutive episodes of To Catch a Smuggler is bound to get your investigative juices flowing. However, the show is not nearly as dubious as the smuggling tactics that it depicts.
Though it is pretty much a given that To Catch a Smuggler plays up certain situations for the cameras, the series really does depict real U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.
It also portrays Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agents, and officers with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) as they try intercept and apprehend smugglers before they cross the border into the United States.
After all it would take a whole lot of effort to stage and script all of the interactions on the show.
And with 124 million people entering the U.S. through airports annually , it seems highly unlikely that the border force would have enough resources to spare for this.
To Catch a Smuggler does not show everything
Jerry Decker, one of the executive producers of To Catch a Smuggler, revealed in 2012 that in order for the higher-ups at the J.F.K airport to agree to the show, they had to confirm that the camera crew would leave the interrogation rooms whenever a suspect or a customs agent requested it.
As a result, it is highly likely that the show has not captured everything that was going on behind closed doors.
Do the smugglers consent to being filmed or are they forced?
A question that has often plagued fans of the series is how exactly it got suspected smugglers to agree to being filmed.
The answer to this question is simpler than you might expect. Decker explained that they did need to get signed release forms in order to use suspects’ names and images on the show.
He added that he was surprised to see how many people in “highly embarrassing situations” had no problem signing these release forms.
How does To Catch a Smuggler up the drama?
Clever editing and timing certainly helps the To Catch a Smuggler team make the average day at the border look much more intense than it likely is realistically.
But we also know from the show’s filming schedule that they purposefully choose to film around times when airports are busier and there is a much higher chance of catching a smuggler in the act.
