Italian authorities have found cocaine worth €150m ($164m) hidden on a Laskaridis Shipping bulker in Venice. Later on Friday, the shipping company said in a statement that it has nothing to do with the drugs.
Helicopter footage shows a number of customs vessels surrounding the Greek-owned 75,000-dwt Atlas (built 2012).
Officials are then shown studying plans of the Liberia-flag ship before divers are sent to inspect the hull, reports global shipping news website tradewinds.com
Blocks of drugs wrapped in black plastic are recovered and tested on a speedboat.
#GDF #Venezia: sequestrati 850 kg di sostanza stupefacente occultata a bordo di una nave da carico proveniente dal Sud-America.#NoiconVoi pic.twitter.com/XqeBPV0cko
— Guardia di Finanza (@GDF) April 20, 2023
The Guardia di Finanza said the cocaine was stashed inside ventilation ducts.
A total of 570 packages were found, weighing 850 kg.
The vessel was subject to further inspections on Thursday.
None of the seafarers on board have been arrested.
Several searches were needed to find the drugs, starting on Tuesday.
AIS data showed the bulker remained moored in Venice on Friday morning.
The ship had left Santos in Brazil on 23 March and arrived in Venice on 17 April.
Laskaridis has been contacted for comment, wrote tradwinds.com.
Laskaridis statement
The Greek shipping company said on Friday afternoon that “neither the crew nor the company was involved in any way” with the drugs, daily kathimerini reported.
The Laskaridis company said “suspected contraband, believed to be cocaine,” was found in the vessel’s sea chest about 11 meters below the waterline.
It had been carefully wrapped in 570 packages.
It added that the sea chest is not accessible from inside the ship. Only divers would have access.
The company the crew of the ship, the Liberia-flag ship Atlas, has cooperated fully with the authorities in their investigation into the find.
Drugs smuggling via container ships
According to tradewinds.com, container ships are more usually targeted for drugs smuggling, but other vessels can also find themselves used unwittingly by gangs.
Last month, European police agency Europol said that more than 200 tonnes of cocaine have been transported through the European Union’s two busiest ports by criminal gangs after they secured unique container codes from corrupt insiders.
A report by the agency revealed the tactic has been growing since 2018 when the port of Rotterdam discovered that containers were going missing, turned up at the wrong places or had been dumped.
Gangs pay hundreds of thousands of euros to corrupt insiders involved in shipping logistics to hand over the unique computerised details of a container that is assigned once payment has been made for transport. The practice is known as PIN code fraud. source: tradewinds.com
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