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Tag: cocaine seizure

  • Italian Billionaire Tied to Ship Seized With 20 Tons Of Cocaine Onboard

    Italian Billionaire Tied to Ship Seized With 20 Tons Of Cocaine Onboard

    The cocaine, worth $1.1 billion, was hidden inside dried goods, nuts and scrap metal on the ship.

    A ship operated by Mediterranean Shipping Company and owned by JP Morgan was held for weeks after a bust found 20 tons of cocaine onboard.

    While at port before embarking to the Netherlands, the ship was raided and the drugs—worth $1.1 billion—were found, hidden inside dried goods, nuts, and scrap metal.

    “The MSC Gayane is the largest vessel seized in U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s 230-year history,” Casey Durst, CBP’s Director of Field Operations in Baltimore, said in a statement, according to Forbes.

    Mediterranean Shipping Company

    This was the third drug bust of 2019 on a ship operated by Mediterranean Shipping Company. MSC is owned by the billionaire couple, Gianluigi and Rafaela Aponte, who are worth $11.1 billion. The Apontes also control MSC Cruises, the fourth largest cruise ship company in the world.

    MSC had been participating in a customs check program created by CBP called Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT). The program gives shipping companies the opportunity to speedily clear border checks in return for strengthening their security measures. MSC is now temporarily suspended from the program.

    However, Forbes reported that according to CBP Press Officer Stephen Sapp, it is not the ships or the company that are the problem. 

    “It’s not indicative of any specific shipping company, it is specific to the source nations where they’re making port calls,” Sapp told Forbes. “Along that route, there are opportunities for people to seal drugs inside those containers.”

    Crew members of the MSC Gayane were arrested and charged with possession. Jakob Larsen, head of security at the international shipping association BIMCO, told Forbes that drug traffickers often smuggle drugs onto large vessels.

    MSC’s global PR manager, Giles Broom, told Forbes, “We have a very long track record of cooperation with authorities in the United States. It’s an industry-wide problem that we’re tackling at the moment, it impacts the entire shipping and logistics sector.”

    U.S. Attorney William M. McSwain tweeted a statement on the seizure this past Monday. McSwain stated that a deal with two international shipping firms with financial interests in the MSC Gayane had been made. Millions of dollars of security and surety bonds were placed. The ship has been returned to commercial service.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Feds Nab $1 Billion in Cocaine at Philadelphia Port

    Feds Nab $1 Billion in Cocaine at Philadelphia Port

    Federal agents seized more than 30,000 pounds of cocaine on the ship.

    Federal agents boarded a cargo vessel docked at Philadelphia’s Packer Marine Terminal on June 18 and seized more than 30,000 pounds, or 16.5 tons of cocaine, which authorities described as one of the largest drug seizures in United States history.

    Two members of the ship’s crew, including the second mate, were arrested and face federal charges of conspiracy to possess cocaine aboard a ship. The seizure and arrests come on the heels of a similar bust in March 2019, where an approximate 3,200 pounds of cocaine were discovered in a shipping container at the Port of New York/Newark. Customs and Border Protection described that apprehension as the second largest cocaine seizure at that port and the largest in 25 years.

    An affidavit obtained by the Associated Press noted that the cargo ship, the MSC Gayane, sails under the flag of Liberia and originated from Chile before traveling through Panama, the Bahamas, Peru and Colombia prior to its arrival in Philadelphia. The document alleged that crew members told government agents that they assisted in loading the cocaine while at sea off the west coast of South America. The crew members also alleged that several ship employees helped to transfer bales of cocaine from 14 boats on two separate occasions.

    As People noted, federal agents began the bust on Monday (June 17), shortly after the MSC Gayane had arrived in Philadelphia, but the actual search of the vessel began on the following day. The 16.5 tons of cocaine were transported to an undisclosed federal facility for further investigation. All media reports noted that additional drug seizures and arrests may be forthcoming.

    The ship’s parent company, MSC Mediterranean Shipping Co., issued a statement in regard to the incident, which noted that it “took the matter seriously and is grateful to the authorities for identifying any suspected abuse of its services,” as well as its “longstanding history of cooperating with U.S. federal law enforcement agencies to help disrupt illegal narcotics trafficking,” including U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

    William M. McSwain, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, praised the law enforcement agencies’ actions in a Twitter post.

    “While the investigation is ongoing, I want to thank all our federal, state and local partners for your incredible work so far in this investigation,” he wrote. “This amount of cocaine could kill millions—MILLIONS—of people. My office is committed to keeping our borders secure and streets safe from deadly narcotics.”

    View the original article at thefix.com