> They could've ordered it. It would get sent and then sit in a customs warehouse until it gets cleared. That could take days or even a week or more. Not having it was costing half a million dollars a day. So what did they do? They flew someone across the Atlantic to the US to get the parts, pay exorbitant extra baggage fees (it was large) and come back with it. Why? Because passenger baggage would immediately pass through customs at the airport. This would likely save 5-10 days.

I knew a case like this where a coworker took a $50k networking switch in his hand luggage to Brazil. With the extra detail that the company it was on behalf of wanted him to lie to customs (because the import duty on electronics was something like 50%!)