Crewman arrested over cocaine find

A PERUVIAN electrician has been indicted in the United States on four counts of drugs trafficking after 515 pounds of cocaine were found hidden on board the Cypriot-flagged ship on which he was working.

The 46-year-old crewman was arrested at the weekend when the ship, the 60,000-tonne Greek-managed Aramis returned to San Francisco to assist authorities with their enquiries.

A spokesman for Tsakos, the ship management company, said the crewmember had been on board the tanker for the past 11 months. “He has never given the company any reason to suspect his involvement in drug related activities,” the spokesman told shipping newspaper Lloyds List.

The drugs, which have an estimated street value of $20-$25 million, were discovered in the rudder of the Aramis on July 21 but the find was not publicised until Wednesday last week. US authorities said it was the biggest drugs bust in a decade.

After determining that the Greek master had taken precautions while docked in Ecuador, including confining the crew to quarters, searching the vessel and using security on the gangway, the Aramis was released to deliver its 350,000 barrels of oil to a US refinery before returning to San Francisco to continue the investigation.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.