The MSC Seaside cruise ship, a giant ocean liner with a capacity of more than 4,000 passengers and a crew of 1,400, came with a surprise for its first stop in the port of Valencia. Ten of its passengers were arrested for hiding in their luggage until last Sunday. 54 kilos cocaine double bottom. Medicine with 70% purity, Worth more than three million euros.
The dogs of the Civil Guard’s cinema unit, which specializes in drug detection, detected the drug after passengers disembarked from the Brazilian cruise ship last Sunday in the port of Valencia. All passengers pass through passport control. their luggage was unloaded in a tentThe ship was to be inspected by customs control when it left the “hot zone” – March 19, when the ship left Santos (Brazil).
The dogs flagged for drugs, and after a more in-depth analysis of fifteen suitcases, agents found a total of 54 pounds of cocaine hidden in the false bottoms of the trunk. Therefore, the Civil Guards and Customs Surveillance Analysis and Investigation Office (ODAIFI) began arresting ten out of ten drug-carrying passengers, four men and six womenThey are all Brazilian nationals.
two criminal groups
To try to go unnoticed on board and not arouse suspicion, the arrested traveled in pairs, simulating an idyllic pleasure cruise. The Civil Guard estimates that the ten detainees belonged to at least two different criminal organizations with no affiliation but with the same working style.
The first group of two couples confiscated 20 kilos and the other six seized the remaining 34 kilos. One of the alleged crime syndicates aimed to distribute the drugs in Madrid and the other in Lisbon, this newspaper has learned. Likewise, three of the couples had booked a hotel in the city of Valencia to facilitate their sale to third parties.
Dogs of the Civil Guard spotted the hidden medicine in the fake bottom of fifteen suitcases as they made their way ashore
The medicine was distributed in fifteen suitcases, each weighing about three and a half kilos. As a curiosity, it so happens women were responsible for carrying more drugsbecause each of them – except one – carries two suitcases, since it is customary for women’s suitcases to be more bulky.
Ten detainees, aged between 23 and 50, were placed at the disposal of the Court of Inquiry number three in Valencia on guard duty. After exercising the right not to testify, the judge agreed to put them all in makeshift prison for drug trafficking crimes that are notorious and belong to a criminal organization.