Good morning all and thank you for letting me share this.
In 2000 I was arrested in Germany for smuggling cocaine with 3 others; the amount was 35KG and was brought in in suitcases from Jamaica via Gatwick on a transferring
flight to Munich.
Myself and one of the others were stopped by Customs at Gatwick and were searched, we were pulled out of the line of people walking through the airport so they must've known about us.They let us carry on to Germany and we landed in Munich, got through the airport, collected the cocaine laden suitcases and left.
We went to a Hotel in the city centre and as we got out of the cab we were arrested by the German Police.
Cutting a long story short, I was convicted and sentenced to 5 years in a German jail of which I served 3.5 years and sent back to the UK in 2004. It came out in the trial that customs knew about the drugs at Gatwick and called ahead to the Germans who decided to grant us entry to find out where we were going.
My passport ran out in 2007 and applied for a new one and went to the Maldives with absolutely no problems at all; 2 years ago I went to Portugal and again no problems.
HOWEVER, this October I want to go to California on a 10 day trip with my partner.I'm awaiting my new passport as the other's just ran out and will then apply for an ESTA. I FULLY understand the consequences of ticking NO on the convictions tab on the ESTA when my new Passport comes through and I apply, but I'm worried about the fingerprinting in the US, etc and will I be flagged up?? I know the UK doesn't share criminal records with the US but could they know ??? I know this is conviction is on record in the UK as I checked and obviously will be in Germany, where I think I'm barred entry to.
Could anybody help me with this ?