As a Bulgarian, I'm absolutely not surprised the only package that was lost was stolen here

Imagine being the one guy in the service that lost a package - and it is a freaking piano to boot. “If you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning."

Fun fact: USPS Priority (edit: REGISTERED) Mail is approved for classified material up to SECRET

One nitpick: Courier pouches are not always met by diplomatic couriers at the receiving end. The only requirement is that the recipient be a top secret cleared employee. At some Embassies, this function is performed by the cleared American IT staff, at others there is a rotation amogst staff from across the post, and at some of the largest posts there are positions dedicated to courier pouch processing who are resident in that post and not themselves part of the DCS. (Source: Volume 12, section 126.1 of the State Department's Foreign Affairs Manual, available on the Internet).

Yeah, right! There I was a Second Lieutenant recently assigned to First Signal Group in Orleans, France. This was 1961. MY CO called me in one morning in early December. "Hey, Lieutenant, you're Jewish, aren't you? Therefore, you won't be celebrating Christmas, will you?" I nodded. "I've got a little job for you. On December 25th you're going to be assigned as a diplomatic courier on a flight from Paris to New York City. Your orders are being cut." Hey that was great. I was from NYC and I could surprise my folks. On Monday morning I arrived at Orly Airport and went to the diplomatic office. I got my .45, met the Sergeant assigned and was taken to the baggage area. The compartment was loaded with postal sacks. I sealed the door and climbed the stairs to the plane's passenger area. Well, surprise, when we boarded the whole coach passenger area was filled with mail sacks. Primarily military mail heading home to the US. There were no coach passengers. The stewardess told us we had been upgraded to First Class. In First Class there were only four other passengers: Bob Hope and Danny Thomas. They had been in Paris for a TV special. The Sergeant and I had a ball. We played bridge with them; we ate with them; we heard war stories, and I heard the famous story about David Niven and the Battle of the Bulge which I have told numerous times. When I arrived in New York City I taxied to my folk's apartment, had a great dinner and was back in France the next day. What fun!

Note: the Diplomatic Security Service is one of the HARDEST special agent jobs to get in the Federal Government. Under 2% of applicants make it through the multiple tests (even a writing sample!), in person vetting process, extensive background checks and situational judgement scenarios. Even after all of that, you now must ACE 9 months of intensive training before you get to work as an agent. Oh, and you need 4 years of college and can’t be older than 37 UNLESS you have been working in the military, and even then you’ll need a wavier from the higher ups at DSS.

FYI at 4:10 , "Mauritian" refers to people from the Island country of Mauritius - not Mauritania. I was confused how they suddenly built a road from Senegal into the ocean.

Quite interesting! It'd be easy enough to make a TV series out of this idea, title it "Couriers", and exagerate some stories to create an amusing show.

As a former Defense Courier also called DCS (Defense Courier Service) we worked with them primarily between our Ft. Meade, MD station and their D.C area location. We would hand over material they could delivery more efficiently and vice versa. It was a fun job for about a year or 2, but there comes a point where it gets monotonous. I got to go to Cuba, Germany, Canada, Portugal and flew in a UPS cargo jump seat to Louisville, KY quite often. One major difference is the DCS (Military) uses 2 couriers vs the 1 the state department uses, but generally we have a lot more classified then they do. 20 years ago someone wrote about out history and we had a spy at out Paris location helping out the soviets. In 1980 a hijacking in Italy and after the Gulf War the Saudi King wrote a $760 Million check we delivered to D.C.

In the 1980s, Nigerian officials worked with Mossad to abduct a former minister and stick him in a crate labeled as a diplomatic parcel. It wasn’t properly labeled so British customs officials were able to open it.

When I was in the Army, I did the mail for my Military Intelligence unit. The deployed back from Iraq, and had to mail some of their classified documents. I had to go through the whole process of getting a secret security clearance just to drive my GSA van to the post office, sign for a poster tube marked classified, drive it to the CO, and leave it in a chair in his office while he finished putting his stuff on shelves.

How long did it take for Amy to get a diplomatic job so she could research this episode?

Couriers escorting pouches also automatically fly business class when available since they're on the clock, and get to keep the miles too 😮 But it's _when available_, since not all routes can use a commercial airline and someone higher up does the scheduling. So there's also cases where they're seated on charter flights, airfreighter jump seats, riding shotgun in a truck, or even berthing on the dreaded transoceanic slow boat.

There's actually a really interesting book about the events Sam describes at 1:26. It's called The Spy in Moscow Station.

Oh finally someone made a video about this extremely specific topic that I really needed to know about, no way!

4:40 - The pronunciation of Łódź was amazing. 75% of letters are not something generally found in English; but that's apparently not an issue, just remove all the pesky extra lines and read whatever is left. (Apart from that great video, as usual)

4:22 That is no longer the flag of Mauritania. There are now two red bands on the top and bottom.

I remember when I travelled back (with a big group of diplomats) from Beijing to the U.S. they gave us a bunch of these orange packages to take with us because of increased tensions with China. So basically every one of the diplomats acted as a courier I guess. This was about a 6 months ago.

According to a polish coworker, Lodz is pronounced like wodge

The scene in The Americans where the Soviet courier takes the pouch to the bathroom to be x-ray'd through the stall wall is one of the best scenes in that series. Also, haven't various high profile defections happened via diplomatic 'pouch' (as in a person stowed inside a large container with a diplomatic seal) or is that some made up James Bond shit? In another scene in The Americans, that Soviet scientist arrives via 'pouch'

I think you meant Mauritanian, not Mauritian. Mauritius is an island nation in the Indian Ocean.

1:05 the pro Byzantium half as interesting shows Constantinople on the map

I'm imagining it's 50% classified documents/drives and 50% pharmaceutical.

One of my fave HAI vids in a while! Top secret stuff and logistics are both so fun. Also, thank you to the entire team that makes these videos (especially writers Amy Adam and Ben) for a truly fantastic year of videos!

"The Silver Greyhounds" was the royal messenger service set up by King Charles II in the 1600's and used by the British ever since. Woodrow Wilson must have been inspired to use the same name.

The thing I learned in this video is that the weird government agency Hobbs worked for in fast and furious is real

It's remarkable what the US government is capable of, now if only we could get that same kind of effort when it comes to doing literally anything for their own citizens.

I heard a horror story about one of these diplomatic pouches making it to an embassy in the UK. Turns out, it was a machine gun used on innocent people and the UK government had to cut ties with the embassy's home country before they could arrest the offender.

The USDCS is a really, really great job and I'd recommend it to anyone who likes travel, doesn't like people much and can pass the checks and balances.

Wait. The only package that’s ever been stolen from this service was an ENTIRE ASS PIANO?

Interesting and informative video, I learned a lot and found the style very pleasant.

Also, the UK's diplomatic courier service originated as and still includes the King's Messengers, and formed in the 19th century, and which inspired the US DCS, and which I assume inspired the "Silver Greyhound" name, given they used badges and emblems of a silver greyhound.

4:02 What are Fixers? Sounds like someone from a Hollywood movie on drugs…

1:28 "My keystrokes are being recorded? Literally 1984 i tell ya"

We need more about this. This is awesome

I was sent as a diplomatic courier a little while ago, it will always be in my memories, however the task was way more challenging than what is shown in the video.

It's a little suspicious that Givewell is sponsoring ads across several channels. Plus the number of ads I get for charities in general is ridiculous. Makes you wonder how they can afford all those promotions. 🤔

Interesting that the army's precursor to the DCS was called the silver greyhounds. The British equivalent to the DCS, the King's Messengers, has a silver greyhound as its badge. The King's Messengers have been around since at least 1199

I snorted when a damned piano was the stolen package.

I work at a freight forwarding company in Europe. And we sometimes handle Diplomatic Pouches, but its usually just furniture or other personal belongings. Usually when they move to and from a country. Its handled like secured freight but without it being checked. So nobody will ever take a look whats inside. Nor is it x-rayed, sniffed or in any other way checked. There are no security officers or something following it, this seems only to apply to american diplomats.

im colorblind, and i cant believe THIS is how i found out that fedex's colors are purple and orange.

6:00 Gotta love the way that sponsor starts out. Throwing obvious shade at the completionist and his fraud. 😂

I know a dude that sat on the tarmac with printers & etc for 6hrs in the sun. He had to make sure no one touched it during the lack of transport in country.. He was in a suit and it was south east asia. he pissed in a bottle..

Well there is one exception when a bunch of people want to smuggle gold they did use Diplomatic pouches but they did get caught

04:40 I just couldn't stop laughing at your pronunciation of Łódź. Cute! I'm so happy the city name appeared on the screen 😂😂😂

This is how high level smuggling works

I've actually done this job in the receiving end. I was be the person at the receiving airport.

DHL did this in the middle east in the 79s, 80s and 90s. Especially Beirut which was in civil war.

You used the old flag for Maturitius. To the HAI corrections bucket with yehs!! And right after AtlasPro made a video about their flag change too!

The Silver Greyhounds are the UK's Corps of King's Messengers, they got the name Silver Greyhounds from Charles II but had already been running important messages since the 12th century. The USA's DCS were based on the Kings Messengers.

There are a few unscrupulous countries traffic a huge amount of narcotics via their diplomatic pouches. In 2012, a 16 kilogram shipment of cocaine was sent to the United Nations in New York. There have been other incidents involving south American and African countries.

Transporting a piano? I bet you 99% of the time they use this service to avoid fees and smuggle drugs.

It's truly remarkable how a system has been shaped to maintain national security. The video was engaging and informational.

Amy could have had a great field trip on this one.

Sounds like an epic job

Ah, so like a high-end, secure Uber Eats!

this is the epitome of DUTY! Bravo ! This would be an AWESOME job man!

I worked for fed ex in the UK and they certainly had a diplomatic courier service, we couldn’t even X-ray it.

3:46 I was exactly here one time, thats a piece of the Berlin wall.

Very strong Going Postal vibes, Sir Terry.

@4:38 the town in Poland is pronounced "Wooj". My grandad was always fascinated by this place. My girlfriend is half Polish and taught me why Ł = a 'w' sound Ó = 'oo' Dz = 'j'

Lodz in Poland is pronounced Wudge to rhyme with budge. That's the reason it's my favourite Polish city.

so this is how the coke is moved

New knowledge acquired.

Excellent video 👍 Thank you 💜

This is a subject I have a lot of first-hand experience with and still learned something about the piano. Thanks HAI! Still have to quibble that staff on the receiving end are not usually technically couriers themselves. But good video.

2:27 Hey really- are you Czech related or what? XD So many hints at that at so many videos LOL

HAI totally "forget" to mention that DCS is often used to smuggle stuff, especially drugs and illegally import stuff (unpaid custom electronic, historical statue etc)

I'm looking for a transporter. "I'm listening."

Best channel for gold and other stuff smuggling

sounds like a sick job. would love that.

"Loads" Poland 🤣

2:35 Harrison Ford is piloting that plane - taking off from a taxiway

105 years service😂😂😂😂 , the Kings messengers have been delivering messages for 800 years

Man, these guys are one exoskeleton with a baby attached away from being Death Stranding couriers

This job is so cool!!! The government needs to do a better job at letting college students know cool jobs like this exist in the federal government. If I knew this was an actual job I definitely would've looked into the qualifications on how to become a Diplomatic Courier. How cool would it be to say you work for the State Department, but my job is classified? It seems Navy SEALs training would be required or some kind of gun proficiency. Aren't you supposed to stop someone from taking the orange pouch if it's ever in jeopardy?

So I should use that delivery service

can i wrap my parcel in that pouch?

Your pronunciation of Helsinki is perfect

Quite an intereting job to have.

That would be embarrassing to have to admit you lost a piano?

Can you ship a diplomatic brick with the diplomatic courier service? Asking for a friend!

"sounds like a sweet job" did you miss the part where they're not traveling, they're boarding planes & train for a living, getting near permanently jet lagged?? always take a 2nd look before claiming the grass is greener.

I have heard stories of treats for children delivered by heavily armed diplomatic courrier service asking which room is safe to drop the loot in an African orphanage. (From a European embassy, not US)

The UK has the King’s Messengers… they have their own passports and everything.

I was totally expecting this one to be sponsored by NordVPN. Seems like the perfect segue.

Idk if givewell is actually legit but I'm glad ur doing that kinda sponsorship instead of accepting them from questionable charities cuz I remember that happening at least once lol

So snail mail for security or what in the world are they transporting?

I see these diplomatic packages at UPS quite often actually.

A small correction: It’s Mauritanian not Mauritian (that’s referring to Mauritius). That’s a common mistake though. Great video

I can't believe the DCS lost the platinum chip.

I heard a story of someone posted to Moscow in the 80s who would use their diplomatic bag to have packets of chocolate biscuits and videos of Eastenders sent to them. I hope that sort of thing still goes on (though why anyone would want to watch Eastenders ia beyond me, I’ve seen more cheerful films about the Holocaust).

Weapons and contraband smuggling service.

1:02 Constantinople was called Istanbul by the post War era.

Hi Sam! Those who can't make HAI videos instead go on to become diplomatic couriers.

Hell of a way to ship bricks.

at least this means the us government don't loose secret files

Would make for a good premise for a heist/spy movie

Silly question We know that these courier is transpoting secret diplomatic cargo and equipment. Is the cargo also need x-ray screening on the regular airport or not?? Or they go through their special secret diplomatic cargo x-ray only? Is it possible to smuggle illegal item that could harm the destination country by using these diplomatic cargo? Such as drugs, heroine, spy tools, weapon, gun, bomb etc??

So i looked this up because i was curious and the pay is awful for the US diplomatic couriers especially for what is expected of you.