A total of 16.5 tonnes of cocaine were discovered in the Port of Philadelphia on a container ship with probable destination Rotterdam. The US Attorney General said that millions of people could have been killed by that amount, given the many drug-related deaths in the US.
The cocaine seized on a large container ship in the Port of Philadelphia has a market value of around $1 Billion US-Dollar. The drugs were in containers aboard the ship MSC Gayane. When the ship docked in Philadelphia, it had previously started several ports. The next destination would have been a European port – presumably one wanted to drive to Rotterdam. The crew of the ship was arrested. One of the crew members showed up confidently. He was paid $ 50,000 to load the cargo.
US Attorney William McSwain from Pennsylvania wrote on Twitter:
“This is one of the biggest seizures of drugs in the history of the United States. The crowd could have killed millions of people.”
This is one of the largest drug seizures in United States history. This amount of cocaine could kill millions – MILLIONS – of people. My Office is committed to keeping our borders secure and streets safe from deadly narcotics. https://t.co/nWPfgpGqYa
— US Attorney William M. McSwain (@USAttyMcSwain) June 18, 2019
The ship should have sailed under the Liberian flag. The ship was in Chile, Peru and Colombia and Panama over the last month, according to Reuters vessel tracking data.
The cargo ship owner Mediterranean Shipping Company said in a statement that it was aware of the incident and that it has a history of working with U.S. law enforcement agencies to help disrupt illegal narcotics trafficking.
The seizure ranks among some of the largest in U.S. history including a bust of 21 tons of cocaine in California in 1989 and 14 tons of cocaine confiscated in Texas during the same year.
Cocaine remains one of the most widely used illegal drugs in the United States, where most of the world’s cocaine is consumed, according to federal officials.
“There are troubling early signs that cocaine use and availability is on the rise in the United States for the first time in nearly a decade,” the U.S. State Department said in a global narcotics trade report in 2017.
The ship’s second mate, Ivan Durasevic, and another crew member, Fonofaavae Tiasage, were charged with conspiracy to possess cocaine aboard a ship. An online court docket did not list attorneys for the defendants. It wasn’t clear whether other crew members would face charges.
The drug seizure is the latest in a series of large cocaine busts along the East Coast. In a March bust in Philadelphia, drug dogs sniffed out 1,185 pounds (538 kilograms) of cocaine worth about $38 million — at that time the city’s largest seizure of the drug in more than two decades.
In February, customs agents seized 3,200 pounds (1,451 kilograms) at the Port of New York and New Jersey with a street value estimated at $77 million. That was the largest cocaine bust at the ports since 1994.
Tuesday’s seizure did not set a U.S. record. A 1989 bust in downtown Los Angeles netted almost 43,000 pounds (19,504 kilograms) of the drug.
the making of a classic anon, i’m a dino… they just adjust the market for inflation…