Yes; I'm convinced most intercepts are not reported on except maybe in end of year statistics.
That said, they do seem to report on large catches. I'm not sure if that's effective, given it means they will just change tactics. I see this mainly with drugs.
But also, I keep thinking if they intercepted this one $100M worth of cocaine, how much did actually pass by?
There is something that has always felt off about “security through obscurity is no security at all”. There is no reason to give a malicious actor a guide to your operations.
> This is a practice that practically everyone does.
I don't find that a strong argument. I doesn't sound true, but even if it were it wouldn't make it a good idea. Furthermore, there is a difference between hiding a detail (submarine location) and hiding a process (the fact that there are submarines, that they have ICBMs, that they slink around waiting to avenge).
Isn't it well known for example that banks have some rules or algorithms that flag potentially illegal activity, and those rules are secret? Revolut just tells you your transaction is suspect and it will take more time to go through, or just tells you you are suspect, and your account is being closed. They don't tell you what the rules are and which one you broke.
Or if Google thinks you are cheating on ads somehow, they just ban you with no information. Intentionally, so you can't construct a cheat that avoids the cheat detection algorithms. This has been discussed at nauseam, and you're saying it doesn't sound true.
More importantly, what exactly do you think "secret" in "secret service" means? Or "classified" information? Are you actually arguing that these things don't exist? Do you think while the location of secret agents is a secret, the hiring rules and the training and the infiltration strategies are public? Go try to find them.
So, in this case, the process would be the existence of customs checks. The hidden detail might be "we've got an informant in the smugglers' organization".
Sure! And it's a matter for debate, but I would draw the line somewhere between what kinds of customs checks there are (e.g. we scan everything leaving a foreign vessel with an MRI and 10% at random with a mass spectrometer) and something covert and sensitive like an informant.
