Smuggling News Story

[Eglesbrech]

“A British couple have been detained after a "large amount of cocaine" was found on a cruise ship returning from the Caribbean.”

 

The above is a quote from the news today. The couple of pensioners had cocaine stashed in 4 suitcases. None of the reports I have seen so far say which ship this was on, one news agency is showing a picture of a Costa ship, another a Cunard vessel. 

 

In reality could this be any ship coming back on a transatlantic crossing from the Caribbean ? I have only ever been stopped once at Southampton to have my cases checked coming back into the UK and it was cigarettes they were looking for (I don’t smoke so had none).

 

Is the profiling so good at Southampton that they don’t need to check or is the number of passengers just so high that customs can’t check everything? How often have you been checked or seen other people being checked coming back into Southampton?

 

 

 

 

[Host Hattie]

The report I saw mentioned Cruise and Maritime's Marco Polo.

[eddie11]

I think it was Marco Polo

[Thejuggler]

Marco Polo.  Arrest was on 4 December and the authorities were aware of the drugs being in board.  It wasn't a lucky hit.

[Eglesbrech]

If I was Costa or Cunard I would not then be pleased that my vessel was in a photo above this story.

 

This was on on the radio news this morning which is unusual if it happened on 4 December. It does however seem to be the same story and as the Juggler says, it was not a lucky hit, it seems to have been intelligence led and they were arrested in Lisbon.

 

The fact that it was profiling and not blind luck / baggage checks is why  I was asking about profiling versus how often we get checked disembarking ships.

[majortom10]

It was Marco Polo and the couple were arrested when the ship docked in Lisbon. The ship left Tilbury, Essex, UK on November 5th and was returning from a cruise to West Indies and Azores.

[pete14]

2 hours ago, Eglesbrech said:

If I was Costa or Cunard I would not then be pleased that my vessel was in a photo above this story.

 

This was on on the radio news this morning which is unusual if it happened on 4 December. It does however seem to be the same story and as the Juggler says, it was not a lucky hit, it seems to have been intelligence led and they were arrested in Lisbon.

 

The fact that it was profiling and not blind luck / baggage checks is why  I was asking about profiling versus how often we get checked disembarking ships.

The picture on the Sky News app is a library picture of a Costa ship in Lisbon. Seems very unfair if it was Marco Polo involved in the story.

[Otter18]

17Kg Of Cocaine was seized from 3 Dutch passengers on Arcadia last month. We were returning from the Caribbean. Our last stop before reaching Southampton was cancelled due to weather. We were diverted to La Caruna instead. The Spanish police made the arrests.

 

http://crew-center.com/three-cocaine-smugglers-arrested-po-cruises-arcadia

 

[yorkshirephil]

It was Marco Polo, we were on this ship returning from a 33 night West Indies cruise. We knew nothing about it until it appeared in the news yesterday. It is typical of the media to show a ship that is not associated with the incident, they could have googled it and posted one of the many photos of Marco Polo.