So, this was one of those ideas that came to me at a random time for no apparent reason, but it does seem like something that could be interesting if done correctly. As cliche and stereotypical as it is, and I'm NOT trying to offend anyone, but there is a small group of about 3 or 4 men from Mexico, trying to smuggle drugs over the border to a very rich man, a mayor. The mayor buys the drugs under the radar so that it doesn't get out and ruin his perfect, public image. It is becoming increasingly difficult for the men to get the drugs over the border, as border patrol is cracking down hard. So, working with the mayor, they devise a plan to grave-rob fresh corpses after their burial; Open up their hollowed out, autopsied, bodies and stuff them with drugs, and drive them right over the border, making everyone think their are real people. And when the bodies begin to go bad, they take them back to Mexico and re-bury them. A work in progress, of course...I'd love ideas!
Research is definitely going to need to be done for this one. I've listed a few things to consider. Legality. I know from personal experience that it's extremely hard to transfer remains from state to state, so I'm assuming it's harder to do so between countries. A body can't simply be taken across lines, documents of American citizenship are going to be a must, as well as coroner's notes and approval by government officials look into this kind of documentation you would need. In post 9/11 U.S. I'm sure even a body will be subject to search. Ways to resolve this would be to change the setting to a previous time period. Which arises an even more interesting set of problems via As I Lay Dying
Perhaps we are on the same page and I'm not understanding or maybe you misunderstood me, but what I was saying was...they take the bodies, fill them up, sew them back together and fix them up to look like real, living, breathing people. They weren't going to OBVIOUSLY carry a corpse over the border, that'd be down-right stupid. Haha!
I'd think the contrary myself. If you're caught carrying dead bodies in the way you're talking about, you're facing both suspicions of why you are lugging bodies mysteriously across the border as well as a crime. At least if you admit right off the back that you're carrying a corpse across the border, you're only looking at the risk of them finding the drugs...Not one of the seven or eight charges you can have on your head of unlawful disposal of a corpse and transfer of remains... That being said, in rephrasing my thoughts to what you were actually talking about. It could work. Pending on how you set up genre and what not, as a serious crime scandal story not so much. But as some sort of dark comedy--the readers are going to be less likely to question the validity of such an endeavor.
Something to keep in mind, along border checkpoints they do keep dogs that sniff out cocaine and other drugs. Those dogs have a very strong sense of smell. For example, a dog trained to find dead bodies can smell a body even if it is underwater. Speaking of smell, the embalming fluid used to preserve bodies has a strong odor. It will be noticable. A body not preserved with embalming fluid also decay more rapidly. Whether embalming fluid is used or not, the bodies would appear very pale since they have no blood in them. This could make them look sickly, which could attrack unwanted attention. People that look very sick generally aren't allowed to travel between borders.
I think it's already been tried. At the very least, I know that some mules have had the more expensive drugs surgically implanted in their bodies, to be removed stateside. It may make for an interesting story of drug smugglers TRYING to do so. Sort of a black comedy. You could use it as a MacGuffin that allows you to tell about some of the absurdities of drug smuggling, border life and immigration policy. -Frank
A story concept means nothing. I can tell you now, it has all been done before. What matters is how you write it, the characterization, the flow, the imagery, all of it. There's no benefit in asking what other people think of the concept! They'll either say,"Sounds great," or, "it sounds like a ripoff of..." If the idea stirs you, write it. Then ask people what they think of the final story. After they tell you what they don't like about it, revise it, usually several times, until you're happy with it or until you throw up your hands and say the hell with it. Please read What is Plot Creation and Development?
He is asking for ideas about his concept to see whether or not the idea is plausible, I believe, and he is getting great answers here. There is nothing wrong with writers bouncing ideas off of one another.
i don't see how anyone could pass off a corpse as a live person, at a border crossing, where papers/passports would have to be produced, before they'd be allowed to cross...
Yeah but isn't that a comedy? That and a recently deceased person looks more alive then someone you dig up even if they are recently burried. Unless this is a comedy of some sort I don't see this being a possible solution. It would just be easier to find new routes and gaps through the border.
I actually, and I encourage future critiquers of this thread to look at this, I'M MAKING THIS A COMEDY, folks. Now, look at it from THAT point.
First of all, let's say that these people are involved in (or know someone who is involved in) some sort of a fake document underground industry. People from central and south America try to get to the US through Mexico all the time, along with, of course, Mexicans. So maybe there are people who produce fake documents so that the illegal aliens can show the border police that they're US citizens. Now, with this industry going on, and our protagonists aware of it, they can get their friend, who is a passport forgerer, to kill some of his clients. Then they can go with the body to the US, and say "oh, yes, I'm John Smith, and this is my brother Winston, and he just had a stroke and it's so sad." or whatever. And get the body across. Btw, it's also interesting how they might think of the idea. How did you come up with that? I heard of that idea before, because people do it in real life. I will now tell you what I've heard happens in real life. THE NEXT PARAGRAPH IS GOING TO BE VERY MORBID. PLEASE STOP READING IF YOU'RE OFFENDED EASILY. I DID NOT MAKE THIS UP, BUT HEARD IT IN A LECTURE ABOUT DRUGS. I think in Thailand or another country, babies are being often dumped, and so people can just kill them, and then... do your idea, for lack of a gentler term. They get women smugglers to simply hold the babies close, so nobody would notice that the baby is dead. It just looks like a woman traveling and holding her baby tight. So, I guess, if it's not too morbid, maybe one of your characters thought of an idea like that, and they just figure that a grown person could have more drugs smuggled in him. They connect the brutal idea I just described with the idea of the forgerer, and pass the bodies as dead Americans who got offed by natural causes and themselves as grieving American relatives.
Nothing bad you can say about that synopsis if the piece is a comedy. I would add some little digs from the custom agent, like, "Your friend/client smells." Etc, etc. And instead of the Mayor doing drugs normally he uses everything as a suppository. And the runners that cross the border could do the runs in a fake medical van that takes clients to see a doctor in close US city. It gives them a semi-plausible excuse to be crossing. Nothing that would hold up in true to life fiction, but good enough for a comedy. -Van
I agree. I don't see how you can make a dead person look alive and well. You will need to be more inventive than that - border guards know most of the smugglers tricks.
Tourists have been getting killed in Mexico and it might be smart for the Mexican gangsters to purposely kill some tourists and use their bodies. It makes more sense than digging up Mexican bodies and trying to ship them to the US, because how and why? Tourists would need to be shipped back, and the mayor could oversee that. Killing tourists is not only timely, but it's more heinous than just digging up bodies.
