Danaos Shipping has said that one of its crew members has recently been arrested in Italy, allegedly for drug trafficking.
It said the unnamed seafarer, who was a member of the crew of the 3,400-teu Dimitris C (built 2001), was detained by police in Genoa.
“A quantity of 300 kg of illegal substances was found hidden on the deck of the Dimitris C during a search conducted by her crew on 15 February,” it said.
“The discovery was reporte d by the vessel’s master to the Italian Authorities at Genoa. The vessel was released on 21 February.”
Danaos says it has established, as a standard policy, augmented internal measures and procedures on its vessels calling at ports renowned for drug trafficking, in order to obstruct trafficking and to locate trafficked drugs.
“It was during such a standard search that the drugs were discovered by the crew on board the Dimitris C well before entering the port of Genoa,” it said.
This is at least the second time illicit drugs have been found aboard the Maltese-flagged containership in the last six months.
In September last year TradeWinds reported that some 121kg of cocaine was discovered aboard the vessel at the southern Peruvian city of Ilo.
A search had reportedly been carried out after an intelligence tip-off. The cocaine was found in three canvas bags and a black briefcase.
The Peruvian navy said in a statement that the vessel had arrived on 13 September from Iquique in Chile.
Danaos told TradeWinds at the time that a search was carried out by crew and the drugs were found by the carefully hidden in a void space on deck between two holds.
At the time Danaos said in a statement that the “crew were found to be innocent and released without any charges”.
