CBP Seizes Entire MSC Ship After Recent Record Cocaine Seizure
The Mediterranean Shipping Company ship that was found to be carrying a record 20 tons of cocaine was seized by CBP on July 4, the agency said in a July 8 news release. Last month, CBP found and seized over a billion dollars worth of cocaine aboard the MSC Gayane, which put MSC's Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism status into question (see 1906240037).
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania issued a seizure warrant for the vessel after a request from the U.S. Attorney's Office, CBP said. “The MSC Gayane is the largest vessel seized in U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s 230-year history and follows the record seizure of almost 20-tons of cocaine discovered on the vessel,” said Casey Durst, CBP’s director of field operations in Baltimore. “Seizing a vessel of this size is an unusual enforcement action for CBP, but is indicative of the serious consequences associated with an alleged conspiracy by crewmembers and others to smuggle a record load of dangerous drugs through the United States." MSC didn't comment.