Even funnier: This news article is so well written/edited, that the headline doesn’t even state that he ignored the flaws; It clearly states that he ignored the sub itself. Truly the pinnacle of journalism.

They have been debunked as lie detectors…
…But they can work at scaring the person testifying into giving away more information.

Sadly and logically, this is transshipment and if done to evade taxes by obfuscating place of origin, it is illegal. From what I heard, US customs does investigate that too, so it’s not just an “illegal in theory but nobody enforces it” kind of thing.