Maritime Executive reports
A bulker arriving in Ireland from Canada is part of an ongoing operation as the Irish police and revenue service search the vessel for illegal drugs. The first phase of the search turned up at least 300 KG of cocaine in bundles aboard the ship and starting on Wednesday morning the authorities were planning to undertake a more thorough sweep of the vessel.
The Verila, a 32,000 dwt bulker arrived in the Irish port of Foynes on the West Coast near the city of Limerick early on Tuesday. Owned by Bulgaria’s Navigation Maritime Bulgare (Navibulgar), the ship which is registered in Malta is reported to be carrying a load of grain from Canada. She departed Montreal on December 9. Navibulgar lists her grain capacity at 41,000 cbm.
After docking yesterday, December 19, the search of the vessel began using specially trained dogs and turning up large bundles which preliminary estimates set at 300 kg. Each was wrapped with life preservers as flotation devices and a GPS beacon. The police suspect the cocaine was to be tossed overboard at some point to be recovered by a smaller boat coming from shore.
