Border Patrol arrests on Seaside the past two weeks

[GOLDENBONNY]

1 hour ago, ziggyuk said:

 

Nobody is talking about support during a search but you would expect any good manager to support staff after the event!

 

You are clearly superhuman if having armed security burst into your room accompanied by dogs, woken at gunpoint, cuff you, trash your room and frogmarch you off for interrogation, that's sure an everyday norm!

 

You really try to tell me that is nothing?

They came for reason for those rooms, and they knew why they are coming. Maybe in UK those units work different (I don't think so) but in US it is what it is. We don't know how manager react after . 

[ziggyuk]

Just now, GOLDENBONNY said:

They came for reason for those rooms, and they knew why they are coming. Maybe in UK those units work different (I don't think so) but in US it is what it is. We don't know how manager react after . 

 

Wrong yet again, those were the interviews with crew that had no part in the smuggling, I'm not quoting them again just for your benefit,  if you can't be bothered to read the statements then best not to comment.

[SirWolf]

This thread goes in the wrong direction. With all respect to the employees involved but it is not about crew, passengers or MSC. The planned operation by US CBP prevented 7 Kilograms (over 15 pounds) of heroin entering the USA and identified the people involved. Let’s talk about traumatized parents of a child consuming drugs or the traumatized family which lost loved one due to drugs. @U.S. Customs and Border Protection - job well done. Thank you for safeguarding our borders. Thank you to MSC Cruises for supporting US law enforcement.

[Booboochase]

Well said, SirWolf!!

[abe3]

SirWolf right on!

[LaCal]

16 hours ago, SirWolf said:

This thread goes in the wrong direction. With all respect to the employees involved but it is not about crew, passengers or MSC. The planned operation by US CBP prevented 7 Kilograms (over 15 pounds) of heroin entering the USA and identified the people involved. Let’s talk about traumatized parents of a child consuming drugs or the traumatized family which lost loved one due to drugs. @U.S. Customs and Border Protection - job well done. Thank you for safeguarding our borders. Thank you to MSC Cruises for supporting US law enforcement.

Cocaine Not Heroin 

[SirWolf]

12 minutes ago, LaCal said:

Cocaine Not Heroin 

Thank you for correcting, you are right. My mistake. 

[citizenfrank]

19 hours ago, GOLDENBONNY said:

They came for reason for those rooms, and they knew why they are coming. Maybe in UK those units work different (I don't think so) but in US it is what it is. We don't know how manager react after . 

I think this thread is dead really. It is a fact of life & a way of the world & when you step back & think about it this must be rife in the cruise industry! Boats floating about in drug dominant territories, people moving ashore & back aboard at will virtually (the crew with far less security checks than passengers 100%) & these boats then entering the US on a weekly basis....come on! Add in that the crew are far from home & as such vulnerable, though I'm not suggesting they were pressganged aboard!

The UK works differently in that the police are in the main a waste of time & certainly we have drug issues here ….Only today a report is published stating the grooming of young children 'moving' drugs from the major cities to more remotes part of the nation at £300 a go 'wages' & this is a £3million a day business.

The US face constant & consistent threats linked to over the border & close by neighbours & seem to do a great job within fighting this, certainly in the main.

I respect them & their methods 100%.

 

But Ziggy is right ….Not all, by any means, of this crew were involved & they must have been scared despite in many cases having no need to be.

 

On a lighter note....

With a hint of mischief (as it is only Thursday)….

I do hope the crew arrested & charged were not allowed to keep their gratuities   

[hamrag]

20 hours ago, GOLDENBONNY said:

They came for reason for those rooms, and they knew why they are coming. Maybe in UK those units work different (I don't think so) but in US it is what it is. We don't know how manager react after . 

Yep, very different in the UK...here police do not charge in brandishing guns at the drop of a hat...not the American way!!

[citizenfrank]

1 hour ago, hamrag said:

Yep, very different in the UK...here police do not charge in brandishing guns at the drop of a hat...not the American way!!

No they pussy about! Which is why they are money wasted & should possibly try alternative methods relating to serious crime & lighten up with their frustrating obsessions with petty crimes/matters.

'Dixon of Dock Green' policing has no place in this century lol

[hamrag]

3 minutes ago, citizenfrank said:

No they pussy about!....'Dixon of Dock Green' policing has no place in this century lol

 

I agree, DoDD pretty much prevails....but gun totting at the drop of a hat has no place either....a happy medium would be better!

[ziggyuk]

Here is a crew report of what happened: http://crew-center.com/held-gun-point-handcuffed-and-fired-msc-seaside-crewmember-tells-his-story

 

Following November 17, drug bust in Port Miami when seven MSC Seaside crew members were arrested for smuggling cocaine, Law-enforcement officers boarded the Seaside for the second time on November 24th. During the raids many crew members were traumatized after they were interrogated by Customs and Border Protection officers, and some fired from the company. Many of the crew say they were left on their own, without support from MSC and the management. A crew member working for MSC Cruises for almost 6 years who was among the ones send back home and fired from the company has decided to step forward and tell his side of the story:

On November 17, I got up around 11 am and ready for work. As I was leaving the cabin along with my roommate who had work the same time upon opening the door I saw two CBP officers and the chief security at my door. 

One of the officer ask me my name and when I told him he said "turn around and face the wall” so I did exactly what he said.  He then proceeded to ask me questions, if I had money in my cabin and what I got on me, so I told him. He put handcuffs on me and the other officers stayed while he entered the cabin with k9 dog.

After they finished searching they took me off in handcuffs. While leaving the ship they pick up two South African girls at the gangway and put them in handcuffs too.

They took me inside the terminal building place me in a room and handcuff me to the metal chair I was sitting on. They had taken my phone from the cabin so one officer ask me to open the phone and he also asked if I had any child pornography in it or any terrorist materiel. I told him no.

There was a lot of action going on as I saw them bring in more crew members both man and women which all were in handcuffs and placed in different rooms.

Some time passed and I was removed from the room out into open space where I could see what was going on.I could see them processing and interviewing crew members who they caught with drugs and money.I could hear them talking and cheering about the good day they had and that they made a big bust, which was indeed true.

After they processed the ones that were involved they took me in a interview room and started to ask me questions. They ask "if I knew what was happening," I told them I can see.

They asked" if I know anything about the guys " I told them I know them because they were Jamaican and they have been working with the company around the same time as me but I made it clear I was not involved in there doing and its obvious because they didn't find me with anything incriminating. 

They said well it's one of three things going to happen.  Am going to get fired and send home, they are going to send me back on board but I have to provide them with information or I go face the judge.

I ask them face the Judge for what?! What's my charge? The officer said ok well is have the other two options. 

I told him I really don't want to lose my job but am not security and I work long hours and don't have time to work and watch people and what they are doing. I also told him I can only take care of myself and that's what I have been doing.

He sent back out and called in my friend who also wasn't involved he's was also given the same choice. Don't know fa sure what he said but apparently it was the same thing. We kept ask what was going on because we realized the time and that the ship was going to leave.

All we hear is someone will talk to soon.

Later in the evening we were talk to CBP office in cuff so we got upset as still no one is tell us anything. The officer there told us to calm down as the fact that we were at the office we are not charged with anything and that he was just doing what he was told. We were kept there until around 10 or 11 in the night, then we were transferred to a detention center.

At the center they gave us food and one guy was asking what was happening because he sees that we are not charged with any crime. We spent the night there and was picked up the next day put on a flight and sent home. They said that the captain had fired us for what I don't know.

[Hlitner]

When we boarded the Divina on the 29th, boarding was delayed until about 1:40 due to CBP.  They had dogs searching parts of the ship for drugs.  We are on a back to back so will see what happens in Miami on the 9th.

 

Hank