OK...

So Kessel is the source of Spice, an Illegal (?) drug, mined on the asteroid.

People Smuggle spice, which is a crime, and lucrative.

Kessel is Imperial Controlled, and guarded by Star Destroyers at some point (Wookieepedia), and Squadrons of TIEs and has Stormtroopers stationed there (Trouble Brewing, CRB).

So... how exactly does someone whos not meant to have spice (Its a crime), fly into Kessel (A seemingly highly guarded imperial outpost), land, pick up the illegal goods, and then leave....

These Smugglars would surely have been scanned, logged, recorded and checked on arrival and departure... and if smuggling spice was so lucrative, why would the Empire allow any jack and bob ship the stuff?????

And where exactly is spice legally used, that the empire would need to control is mining operations there?

Glitterstim, which is the spice mined on Kessel, does have some medicinal uses (in the same way that cocaine, opium and heroin have some medicinal uses, and were used extensively in legitimate medicine for decades if not centuries).

The planet is also just a terrible place to live and work, and thus makes sense why the Empire would make it a prison planet with very dangerous labor - you might put a political prisoner there for awhile, and eventually they might be willing to sing the Empire's praises to their followers if the Empire lets them go home.

As to how people get in, well, it's not easy to completely prevent someone from approaching a planet unless it's behind a deflector shield. Kessel was a prison, not an important world, so I imagine its air traffic and scanning was similarly primitive compared to Coruscant. A ship might be able to slip in somehow, it's the exit that's tricky, what with all the black holes and guard ships knowing the departure schedule.

I think it also requires a bit of suspension of disbelief.

I think of most raw spice compounds as controlled rather than fully illegal. AFB so not sure about glitterstim, but I know others such as ryll spice from Ryloth have medical applications. Think of it like opium.

With that in mind, I assume that glitterstim smuggled directly from Kessel is done under some auspice of legitimate shipping, at least as far as getting past the Imperial presence is concerned. It wouldn't be beyond (a decent conspiracy theorist's) imagination if the Empire also deliberately fed illicit spice into the system for profit or influence.

Actually, that makes me think of some plot hooks around Hutt/Black Sun organizations and the Empire. It's been about six months since my players disrupted that out-of-nowhere powerful smuggling ring off of Formos (Trouble Brewing). About time for some consequences to trickle down...

I think it also requires a bit of suspension of disbelief.

Especially this. Saves a lot of headache when I start pulling too many threads...

Spice from Kessel is like Opium, it has plenty of legitimate medical uses in addition to it's illegal uses.

Now that Kessel is a full blown planet, the smuggling angle becomes pretty typical. You find a supplier who may get the stuff by diverting it from legit operations, or perhaps runs a wildcat mine of their own. You get to Kessel through typical smuggler means (acting as a legitimate cargo runner, or stealth, or speed, or...) and once you're loaded you leave through the usual smuggler means.

A lot of Kessels tabooness is from old EU novels that took a swift kick to the meevonks when Rebels decided to go there. Now it's just another planet with one noteworthy export...

I dont know anything about the Rebels/Kessel thing.

All I know is that its an asteroid, and not very large (Not big enough to maintain its own atmosphere).

But if glitterstim is exported for legitimate uses, and Solo can fly in and land (presumably under falsified records), why would he need to get out quickly... why wouldnt those records stand up to scrutiny, if the passed muster At the Mine itsself?

(Which having looked again at Wookeepeia, turns out I was looking at the Legends tab, not cannon... but the issue remains, regardless of the shape of the planet)

I dont know anything about the Rebels/Kessel thing.

All I know is that its an asteroid, and not very large (Not big enough to maintain its own atmosphere).

But if glitterstim is exported for legitimate uses, and Solo can fly in and land (presumably under falsified records), why would he need to get out quickly... why wouldnt those records stand up to scrutiny, if the passed muster At the Mine itsself?

(Which having looked again at Wookeepeia, turns out I was looking at the Legends tab, not cannon... but the issue remains, regardless of the shape of the planet)

Solo probably didn't have falsified records, etc. It's implied that he snuck in, avoiding Imperial sensors, collected the spice (likely from corrupt Imperials paid by Jabba), and then had to escape again before being spotted.

Surprisingly, it's basically impossible to have a sensor grid that covers the local space around a planet 100%, there are always going to be gaps to slip through, and that's what smugglers do best.

They must be making ALOT of spice for someone to sneak out with some bribed good without it being missed....

Hmm.... always something in this universe to perplex you, eh?

Well, it's a planet where half of it is covered with mines, and though it is an expensive drug to get hold of, isn't especially rare on the black market, so yea, I'd have said they'd be making quite a lot of it.

If you think about it, if they could only mine small amounts, it would make any medicinal uses it has next to pointless, because there's no way in hell a small amount would be of any use to the Empire, never mind illegal trafficking.

They must be making ALOT of spice for someone to sneak out with some bribed good without it being missed....

Hmm.... always something in this universe to perplex you, eh?

Could be a secret wildcat mine.

It's a planet now,

But ive always seen it as an asteroid from the EU. and I am going to struggle to see it any other way now!

(First Canon Change thats irked me!)

They must be making ALOT of spice for someone to sneak out with some bribed good without it being missed....

Hmm.... always something in this universe to perplex you, eh?

Could be a secret wildcat mine.

That too - I mean, all the mine has to do is be out of the way, and the chances of it being spotted on the surface of a planet full of mines, and identified as a wildcat mine, is slim to none.

It's a planet now,

But ive always seen it as an asteroid from the EU. and I am going to struggle to see it any other way now!

(First Canon Change thats irked me!)

It was always a planet. It's just that now it is spherical, and previously it was potato-shaped. It was always a full-sized planet.

My understanding was it was a large asteroid, unable to maintain its own atmosphere, and all mining operations were run from a single facility.

Thats what I got from the couple of books I read that detailed it anyway

Kessel is Imperial Controlled, and guarded by Star Destroyers at some point (Wookieepedia), and Squadrons of TIEs and has Stormtroopers stationed there (Trouble Brewing, CRB).

Planets are big. Really big. Big compared to 10 or even 20 star destroyers. Even with patrols, they can't catch everything.

(and, yes, I'm going with the Rebels version of Kessel, not the Legends asteroid version)

I never really liked Asteroid-Kessel. It just made everything extra-complicated and illogical to me.

My understanding was it was a large asteroid, unable to maintain its own atmosphere, and all mining operations were run from a single facility.

Thats what I got from the couple of books I read that detailed it anyway

As the Legends bit on Wookipedia says, it was always a planet, just one that was not spherical, and did not have an atmosphere for itself (they had generators that kept a breathable atmosphere on it).

So no, it was never just an asteroid.

I liked the favor of potato kessel, but round atmosphered kessel does go down smoother.

The way I understand it owning or using spice isn't illegal but the Empire made a law that buying it from anyone but the Empire was a crime then jacked the price to absurd levels so getting it off the black market was cheaper.

The simplest way to smuggle spice is bribe someone on the production line to set aside a few cases for "Inspection" and then have them disappear. In fact i bet the EMpire has made a deal with the hutts to give them spice in exchange for favors, even slaves to build their big battlestations

You might watch Season 2 of The Wire or read up about how illegal goods or drugs are produced/distributed in the real world. The real world isn't always the best predictor of how stuff works in a fantasy adventure like Star Wars, but...

I'm not an expert by any means, but I think it's a mistake to assume that Imperial control of ANYthing is 100% complete.

As part of the massive Imperial mine, you'd have corrupt officials/workers within the organization who divert some of the product out the back door and make deals with smugglers in order to make a profit.

Or just consider prisons in the real world. Of course, they're supposed to be guarded heavily and there's not supposed to be any lawbreaking going on within them, but all it takes is some corrupt officials and you can have prisoners making deals with guards to smuggle things in or out and everybody along the pipeline makes a profit.

My understanding was it was a large asteroid, unable to maintain its own atmosphere, and all mining operations were run from a single facility.

Thats what I got from the couple of books I read that detailed it anyway

As the Legends bit on Wookipedia says, it was always a planet, just one that was not spherical, and did not have an atmosphere for itself (they had generators that kept a breathable atmosphere on it).

So no, it was never just an asteroid.

I know this is sci-fantasy, but as a Planetary Science graduate, I feel obligated to note that under no definition can a body incapable of generating sufficient gravity to make itself round during accretion be called a planet. Indeed, by most planetary science definitions (as opposed to the astronomy definition) the ability to become round is the definition of a planet.

Alright, back to smuggling.

My understanding was it was a large asteroid, unable to maintain its own atmosphere, and all mining operations were run from a single facility.

Thats what I got from the couple of books I read that detailed it anyway

As the Legends bit on Wookipedia says, it was always a planet, just one that was not spherical, and did not have an atmosphere for itself (they had generators that kept a breathable atmosphere on it).

So no, it was never just an asteroid.

I know this is sci-fantasy, but as a Planetary Science graduate, I feel obligated to note that under no definition can a body incapable of generating sufficient gravity to make itself round during accretion be called a planet. Indeed, by most planetary science definitions (as opposed to the astronomy definition) the ability to become round is the definition of a planet.

Alright, back to smuggling.

Yes, I know, but according to Star Wars, it is a planet.

No one ever accused the Star Wars writers to know what they hell they were talking about

The simplest way to smuggle spice is bribe someone on the production line to set aside a few cases for "Inspection" and then have them disappear. In fact i bet the EMpire has made a deal with the hutts to give them spice in exchange for favors, even slaves to build their big battlestations

This actually came up in the AC Crispen Han Solo trilogy. The empire launched an attack on the Hut home system in the second book and in the third book Jabba managed to turn the Hutt council against a rival Kajidic because that kajidic sold a lot of slaves to the empire, didn't contribute to the fund to bribe the Imperial admiral leading the attack, didn't suffer any major damage in the attack and wasn't aiding in the rebuilding. Plus they were one of the main spice producing kajidics and were rising the price when the other kajidics couldn't really afford it. Jabba accused them of trying to destroy the other kajidics rather then competing with them.

Also with Kessel's proximity to the Maw cluster of black holes, I'm sure reliable means of scanning for incoming traffic is difficult when approached from that route(ie the Kessel Run)