Those convicted of organized crime will no longer be able to obtain a seafaring license: Will they clear the decks of criminals?

The Ministry of Maritime Affairs plans to establish the obligation to submit a certificate of no criminal record for all seafarers.

In September 2024, they formed a working group to draft a law on navigation safety, which, they claim, will be harmonized with EU legislation and IMO conventions.

Several seafarers contacted Vijesti, claiming that they are not doing well on the global market if the state does not regulate the issue of confiscating documents from those who participate in international drug and weapons smuggling.

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They will drop the anchor for organized crime (Illustration), Photo: Shutterstock
They will drop the anchor for organized crime (Illustration), Photo: Shutterstock
Disclaimer: The translations are mostly done through AI translator and might not be 100% accurate.

Montenegrin seafarers convicted of organized crime will in the future not be able to obtain a seafarer's license, a necessary document to be able to sail at all, the Ministry of Maritime Affairs told Vijesti.

Responding to the newspaper's questions, they explained that this government department is working on a new law on navigation safety, which will define the obligation to submit a certificate from the court as a condition for issuing a maritime book, or issuing authorizations and special authorizations.

They recalled that this was not foreseen by the current regulation, which is why in September last year they formed a working group to prepare a regulation in line with EU legislation and IMO conventions. IMO is an international, specialized maritime agency of the United Nations, headquartered in London.

"The current Law on Maritime Safety... does not define the obligation to submit a certificate from a court that a person has not been convicted and that no investigative proceedings are being conducted against him, in the process of issuing a seafarer's book, authorizations and special authorizations. Given that the Ministry is working intensively on drafting a new law on maritime safety, the same will propose the obligation to submit a certificate from a court, as a condition for issuing a seafarer's book, or issuing authorizations and special authorizations. In September 2024, the Ministry formed a working group whose task is to draft the Law on Maritime Safety, which will be harmonized with EU legislation and IMO conventions," the department it manages announced. Filip Radulović.

Several seafarers contacted Vijesti, claiming that they "do not fare well" in the global maritime market if the state does not regulate the issue of confiscating documents from those who participate in international drug and weapons smuggling.

Vijesti recently published a study on the recruitment of seafarers for cocaine smuggling, which showed that few resisted the call, and that some of those who did often ended up underground or behind bars. Some, however, have thus earned business empires that are synonymous with success in many cities of the former Yugoslavia...

One of Vijesti's interlocutors, a long-distance captain, explained why it is necessary to urgently standardize the obtaining of maritime documents and authorizations and the procedure for their revocation.

"Maritime on our coast goes back centuries, and our sailors, or rather captains, have been ambassadors of the country they come from in the truest sense of the word. Unfortunately, the trend seems to be such that a critical number of sailors are reaching for quick money. The global maritime labor market is picky, and if this negative trend continues in drug smuggling and other things, it will not bode well for us at all, because serious shipowners under flags of convenience (FOC) could refuse to board our sailors. Therefore, the process of obtaining maritime documents and authorizations and the procedure for their revocation should be standardized as soon as possible," he said.

He pointed out that the current regulations have not yet legally sanctioned holders of maritime documents and authorizations who are under investigation or convicted of criminal offenses in the field of organized crime, although the consequences of the irresponsible actions of Montenegrin seafarers involved in drug and weapons trafficking in the shipping industry are unforeseeable...

The image of Montenegrin seafarers was damaged even earlier, especially after around 2019 tons of cocaine were found in the summer of 20 in the port of Philadelphia, on the container ship "Gayane", which is owned by the Italian-Swiss shipping and logistics company Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC).

Some time later, MSCI began to massively fire Montenegrin seafarers due to their bad image - because several of them "fell" due to organized drug trafficking. They resorted to this after the US authorities officially informed this and other large container shipping companies, whose vessels maintain regular lines with American ports - that their ships, whose crews are dominated by seafarers from Montenegro, were undesirable in America.

The ministry headed by Radulović confirmed what the editorial team found during its research - that the current Law on Maritime Navigation Safety does not define the obligation to submit a certificate from a court that a person has not been convicted and that no investigative proceedings are being conducted against him, in the process of issuing a seaman's seaman's book, authorizations and special authorizations to a seafarer.

"Given that the Ministry is working intensively on the drafting of the new Law on Navigation Safety, it will propose the obligation to submit a certificate from the court, as a condition for issuing a maritime book, or issuing authorizations and special authorizations. In September 2024, the Ministry formed a working group tasked with drafting the Law on Navigation Safety, which will be harmonized with EU legislation and IMO conventions," said the government department.

When answering Vijesti whether, when drafting the new code, they will standardize the obtaining of maritime documents and authorizations and the procedure for their revocation, and how they will do so, they said that they will consider restrictive measures:

"As the Draft Law on Navigation Safety is currently being drafted, the Working Group will certainly consider and propose more restrictive measures for obtaining maritime documents, and one way would be to make the issuance of a SID card (Seaman Identification Document) conditional on a court confirmation, and to make the issuance of authorizations and special authorizations conditional on the possession of an SID card for a Montenegrin seafarer," the Ministry of Maritime Affairs said.

They also explained that the Port Authorities of Bar and Kotor, which are independent organizational units under the jurisdiction of the Directorate for Maritime and Inland Navigation, keep records of data on Montenegrin and foreign seafarers, their authorizations and achieved sailing experience, through the Register of Issued Authorizations on Competence and Special Competence of Seafarers.

Numerous seafarers from Montenegro in the cocaine vortex (Illustration)
Numerous seafarers from Montenegro in the cocaine vortex (Illustration)photo: Shutterstock

"Through the upgrade of this electronic database, i.e. the improvement of software solutions, and through the future record of issued identification documents to seafarers - SID (Seamen identification Document), this register will also serve as a unique database of Montenegrin seafarers, given that the seafarer's identification document is issued exclusively to Montenegrin citizens. The Ministry has adopted the Regulation on the Seafarer's Identification Document, which prescribes the manner and procedure for issuing a seafarer's identification document, the content and form of the seafarer's identification document, the protective elements on the form and the materials used for the preparation of the seafarer's identification document form and the application form for issuing a seafarer's identification document. Through the Register of Issued Authorizations of Competence and Special Competence of Seafarers, electronic verification of the validity of issued authorizations of Montenegrin and foreign seafarers is enabled," the ministry points out.

Cocaine from Guyana has tarnished the reputation of Montenegrin sailors

Due to suspicions of being involved in international cocaine smuggling, numerous Montenegrin seafarers have been under the scrutiny of international investigators for more than a decade and a half.

A study published by Vijesti in September 2024 showed that agents on ocean-going ships and border police officers in international ports were identified as key people through whom drug cartels obtained personal information about the crews of large container ships, who were then recruited to smuggle cocaine. Among them were hundreds of sailors from the former Yugoslavia, some of whom entered the world of drug smuggling by force, and some for the sake of quick profit...

Although Montenegrin seafarers have been arrested for drug smuggling for almost 15 years, the most damaging action was Operation Gayane, when in July 2019, on suspicion of participating in international drug trafficking, US authorities arrested six seafarers from the crew of an MSC container ship, four of whom were from Montenegro - Ivan Đurašević, Boško Marković, Aleksandar Kavaja and Nenad Ilić.

The ship was then detained in Philadelphia for almost a month and was temporarily released to continue its journey on the route from Asia via South and North America to Europe, only after the owner - the MSC company - paid a bail of as much as $50 million.

Former Montenegrin boxer Goran Gogić, who was arrested on October 30, 2022 in Miami, was also charged with this criminal business after an indictment was filed against him in New York.

Documents with a validity period of 10 years

With a seafarer's seaman's book, the seafarer proves his identity, professional qualifications, previous embarkations, the capacity in which he was embarked, as well as the duration of his sailing experience on a Montenegrin or foreign vessel.

This document may be issued to a person over the age of 16 who is physically and mentally healthy and capable of performing certain tasks on a vessel in accordance with a special regulation.

This is regulated by the Regulation on forms of seafarers' books and boarding permits, which prescribes the content of the form of the seafarers' book and boarding permit, but also to whom these documents can be issued...

It was clarified that the documents are issued with a validity period of 10 years and that it is envisaged that they will include data on blood type, but also that the competent Captain's Office will enter data on qualifications, previous embarkations, revocation of authorization and remarks...

The explanation of the amendments to the Ordinance, which were last made in 2010, states that until then, the Ordinance on Maritime and Shipping Books and Embarkation Permits from 1981 was in force.

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