Argentine officials now believe they have dealt a knock-out blow against organized crime and drug smuggling in what is being reported to be the largest drug seizure in the history of Port San Lorenzo. The investigations are ongoing to unravel some of the mysteries of the case and confirm the details provided by the ship’s cook, who has confessed to his role in the smuggling operation.
The authorities believe the situation began in late April. The Greece-managed bulker Ceci (42,665 dwt) registered in the Marshall Islands arrived off Montevideo, Uruguay, on April 20, where she anchored for four days. She was arriving on a trip from the UAE and Bandar Imam Khomeini Port in Iran. On April 25, she docked at the inland port of San Lorenzo, Argentina, where she was loading 46,000 tons of pressed sunflower seeds and was scheduled to sail to Amsterdam.
The situation began to unfold when on Tuesday night, April 29, the captain of the vessel made his rounds inspecting his ship as they prepared to get underway. In the cold food storage area holding the supplies for the crew, the captain spotted “suspicious packages.” He notified the shipping company, which in turn contracted the Financial Intelligence Unit. The Coast Guard descended on the ship and began a search using trained dogs.
The police found a total of 16 carefully wrapped watertight bundles, and inside 379 packages. Testing confirmed 469,500 kilos of high-purity cocaine. The value in Argentina was set at nearly $6 million, with reports saying that if it had reached Europe, the value would have soared to at least $20 million.
Along with the cocaine, the police found GPS devices, nets, ropes, and other gear that they suspect was used to possibly bring the cocaine aboard and would have been used to lower the bundles over the side of the ship at a designated drop point. The police said drop-on-drop-off is a common technique, but it means someone on the ship had to be assisting the professional gang behind the shipment. The cartels are known to look for “cheap labor,” seeking out low-level crewmembers on the ships.
The 20 Filipino seafarers from the ship were detained and questioned. Media reports say the ship’s cook, Jonathan Caputero, confessed to his role. The police have arrested him, making him the first international crewmember to be apprehended in a smuggling effort. They are examining his cell phone, and the ship, as of May 7, remains in San Lorenzo.
The police are still trying to corroborate the story told by the cook and determine key points such as when the drugs were loaded onto the ship. They began reviewing three days of videos from the San Lorenzo port. Some media reports are saying they found traces of salt water on the bales, which corresponds to the story told by the cook that the bales came aboard while they were anchored in Montevideo, but the police are suspicious that the drugs would have been loaded on an inbound ship.
Media reports said the cook also told them that another ship had first been tagged for the shipment, but it was changed. He also indicated that additional drugs were to have been loaded in San Lorenzo, but they never materialized.
One technique the police are considering is that the drugs came aboard via a boat alongside loading supplies on the ship. Another would be a speedboat meeting the ship, and the drugs being hoisted onto the deck.
Several of the major drug kingpins who would have led such an operation are in jail. The police are trying to determine who was behind this shipment and if a new leader is emerging for one of the cartels.
