MEDITERRANEAN Shipping Company (MSC) is facing ongoing fallout from multiple drug smuggling cases that occurred three years ago, reports New York's FreightWaves.
The US government is pursuing msc for US$700 million in penalties and could move forward with a forfeiture case against the 10,776-TEU MSC Gayane.
Over 20 tons of cocaine worth $1 billion were found in containers aboard the MSC Gayane in June 2019 when it called in Philadelphia.
It marked the largest cocaine seizure in US history.
Also in 2019, 1.6 tons of cocaine were found aboard the MSC Carlotta when it called in Newark, New Jersey; 537 kilogrammes of cocaine were discovered aboard the MSC Desiree in Philadelphia; Peruvian authorities found 2.4 tons of cocaine on the MSC Carlotta; and Panamanian authorities found 1.3 tons of cocaine on the MSC Avni.
Eight seafarers aboard the MSC Gayane pleaded guilty and were sentenced to 50 years in prison.
The seafarers admitted to using the ship's crane to load the cocaine from speedboats while the vessel was on the high seas off South America, hiding the drugs in the ship's containers.
US prosecutors allege that Montenegrin Goran Gogic oversaw the logistics of getting the cocaine from South America to Europe aboard the MSC Gayane, MSC Carlotta, and MSC Desiree.
The cocaine smuggling cartel infiltrated MSC. 'We certainly didn't see MSC as a victim in all this,' said US attorney William McSwain.
Former US Customs deputy commissioner Robert Perez declared the US government was greatly interested in knowing 'how high the influence of the narco-traffickers lay within this company.'
Said MSC: 'MSC strongly objects to Bloomberg's headline claim that the subversion of a small number of seafarers from Montenegro, in what remain very specific circumstances, amounts to the 'company' being 'infiltrated' by a drugs cartel.'
'The company and everyone in it are victims,' said MSC in a statement filed in court in April 2021.
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The US government is pursuing msc for US$700 million in penalties and could move forward with a forfeiture case against the 10,776-TEU MSC Gayane.
Over 20 tons of cocaine worth $1 billion were found in containers aboard the MSC Gayane in June 2019 when it called in Philadelphia.
It marked the largest cocaine seizure in US history.
Also in 2019, 1.6 tons of cocaine were found aboard the MSC Carlotta when it called in Newark, New Jersey; 537 kilogrammes of cocaine were discovered aboard the MSC Desiree in Philadelphia; Peruvian authorities found 2.4 tons of cocaine on the MSC Carlotta; and Panamanian authorities found 1.3 tons of cocaine on the MSC Avni.
Eight seafarers aboard the MSC Gayane pleaded guilty and were sentenced to 50 years in prison.
The seafarers admitted to using the ship's crane to load the cocaine from speedboats while the vessel was on the high seas off South America, hiding the drugs in the ship's containers.
US prosecutors allege that Montenegrin Goran Gogic oversaw the logistics of getting the cocaine from South America to Europe aboard the MSC Gayane, MSC Carlotta, and MSC Desiree.
The cocaine smuggling cartel infiltrated MSC. 'We certainly didn't see MSC as a victim in all this,' said US attorney William McSwain.
Former US Customs deputy commissioner Robert Perez declared the US government was greatly interested in knowing 'how high the influence of the narco-traffickers lay within this company.'
Said MSC: 'MSC strongly objects to Bloomberg's headline claim that the subversion of a small number of seafarers from Montenegro, in what remain very specific circumstances, amounts to the 'company' being 'infiltrated' by a drugs cartel.'
'The company and everyone in it are victims,' said MSC in a statement filed in court in April 2021.
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