Agents from overseas ships and border police officers at international ports have been identified as key people through whom drug cartels obtained the personal information of the crews of large container ships, who were then recruited to smuggle cocaine.
An interlocutor of Vijesti from a foreign security service told a list about the events in the famous Brazilian club in Santos, which was practically a recruiting center for that illegal but lucrative business, but also about its subsequent shutdown thanks to police pressure.
Research by Vijesti shows that few resisted that call, and that some of the others often ended up underground or behind bars. Some, however, earned business empires in this way, which are synonymous with success in many cities of the former Yugoslavia...
How much is earned from this dangerous job, according to the data of a team of international investigators that individuals paid up to 30.000 euros to an experienced captain from the south of Montenegro just to get them involved in that job...
"The moment we got off the ship at the Santos terminal, a message was sent to the cartel... There was no need for them to follow us. We knew where we would end up - to a night club that we, for whom it was our first encounter with Brazil, only heard that it offers the best time, but also that there are the most expensive and hottest women. Colleagues from the ship, not even the first officer, did not mention what we realized that long ago, summer night - that the fierce guys from the south are the owners of clubs, restaurants, companies... and these are mostly bases for making dirty deals and recruiting soldiers." , says one of the interlocutors of Vijesti.
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He explains that that night he and his friend and colleague were to become their prey: "A rejected offer would mean the end of life immediately, an accepted one would probably mean the same, but a little later, when we do our part."
"That was exactly the offer made to us at the bar of a nightclub in Santos by a tall, striking guy with a shaved head, while sipping whiskey, otherwise the head of an international drug cartel originating from the territory of the former Yugoslavia. In these 'bases' people, planned or unplanned, fall into the hands of drug cartels and become their soldiers... Our lives, which at that moment were not worth even five dollars, were saved by ingenuity, even though all this happened in a city where everything happens and in which there are no rules"...
That's how one of them told Vijesti about the meeting with the mafia that needed the services of sailors from the container ship, adding that after one of the operations of arresting and confiscating a large amount of cocaine, he found out that a good number of his colleagues from the ship were involved in that illegal business.
His story was confirmed by the interlocutor of Vijesti from the foreign security service, which during numerous arrest operations "processed" the stranded sailors.
Answering questions about a kind of recruitment center - a nightclub in Santos, which bore the name of the Brazilian football club, he said that during the extensive investigation they spoke with dozens of seafarers from the Balkans, several of them resisted the offers, even if it meant that they "failed" mafia boss, and then move on to smaller ships and routes uninteresting to the mafia.
However, there are not many of them, and they are the ones who cause problems for the Balkan sailors, who find it increasingly difficult to get business engagements...
“Many years later, the first joint operations in the south that we did, they were just going towards that club... We got them to shut it down. During the same operations, we also discovered how they always knew with absolute precision who to recruit - civil servants and ship agents were under investigation, because they are large companies that have agencies in almost all countries, and complete all formalities with the port and state authorities. , from paper, services, needs. We knew that they, or government officials, gave the cartels information, including passport pictures of those who might be good for their jobs. It turned out that both of them did. For a couple of hundred dollars. Each of them, heard in the investigations, said that they had to, that they were threatened. That's how we got the information about the case we're talking about today, but also the identification of those who recruited seafarers from the Balkans from South America, among whom for years one man from Kotor and one Croat with Slovenian citizenship were in charge," said the interlocutor. News.
In this context, he mentioned the names of the two main links in the networking of the Balkan cartel with seafarers.
What are you guys drinking?
An investigation by Vijesti about the recruitment of sailors for international cocaine smuggling showed that one of the sailors from Bar was targeted by the cartel as soon as he got off the ship in the South of America. however, he lost his life in the fire that the cartel prepared for him after he had done many "excuses" for them: "He was set on fire in Spain, in a rent a car vehicle"...
"Part of the young people who come from the countries of the former Yugoslavia to earn a living, without the intention of getting involved in crime, end up in the clutches of the mafia. Most of them fall when, for example, in a Brazilian night club, surrounded by women and people from all over the world, in our fluent language they hear: 'Boys who drink'... Delighted to have met one of our people in Brazil, they stay hanging out, and then leave drinking, the most expensive women, spending all the time the ship is in the port, which is about 24 to 36 hours, so 'friendship' and very quickly get down to business. That's how a bunch of them fell and got into cocaine smuggling, without any previous contact with criminals from the EX YU area. Subsequently, they connected and often entered into business with local cells of international drug cartels, such as Pljevlja, Skaljar, Kavač... Now the danger is three times greater than a little less than two decades ago, including those who are just starting to sail, but also their families must be much more careful - the challenges are greater, and it is easier to get the data of those who board the ships, so sometimes the recruitment begins even before they book a plane ticket in Montenegro, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina or Serbia and go to get on the ship", said the interlocutor of Vijesti from the foreign security service.
He explains that the scale of the problem became visible a little over 15 years ago, when complex cocaine smuggling networks were discovered in numerous international operations, of which sailors from the Balkans were a part.
"That's when we confirmed operational information, exchanged with international partners - that Balkan sailors became an important part of international criminal groups that smuggled huge amounts of cocaine from South America to Europe. This also coincided with the data that the real lucrative stories started after the cartels found out that in 2007 a large shipping company bought and took over four new ships in a shipyard in Romania (Constanza). Those four ships are specific in that in the holds (cargo holds), the spaces below the deck were equipped with reefer sockets. In translation, they could drive reefer containers both on the deck and in the holds, which means a greater number of reefers. Sockets are mostly on deck. Due to the addition of sockets in the readings, with a capacity of 600-800 reefer units per ship, immediately after taking over they were sent to South America, because Brazil and Argentina are large exporters of frozen products and there was a chronic need for such ships and their employment on such routes. Until then, smaller ships of smaller capacity went from South America to Europe. The renewal of the fleet was a clear sign to all those who smuggled narcotics, for them it was the easiest possible way, with the creation of adequate logistics. At that time, ships were always on those routes, it was a safe passage for them, and then the smuggling of hundreds of kilograms of cocaine began in earnest... Part of their task was to recruit sailors, who would provide them with cocaine and bring it to The European ports of Antwerp, Rotterdam, Valencia, Genoa, Gioia Tauro, Bar, Kopar... It also suited them that there was an intermediate station in the Canary Islands, i.e. the port of Las Palmas, in the liner schedule of the container ships... Then began the massive inclusion of sailors from the area of the former Yugoslavia, and until then, the members of the Amerika clan were leading the way", said the interlocutor of Vijesti.
They found 2,63 tons of cocaine in the plane
Police in Guinea-Bissau seized 2,63 tons of cocaine found on a plane at the country's airport after international partners shared with them information that a plane from Venezuela would arrive in the country loaded with cocaine.
After landing at Osvaldo Vieira Airport, 78 bales of cocaine were found and seized in the passenger cabin.
In addition to the confiscated 2.633 kg of cocaine, the Guinean authorities managed to arrest five crew members - two Mexicans and one Colombian, Ecuadorian and Brazilian.
According to Vijesta, this large-scale international operation was supported by the Center for the Analysis of Maritime Operations on Narcotics Trafficking (MAOC-N), and was made possible through extensive cooperation and information exchange between several partners, including the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), the Portuguese Judicial police (PJ) and the Colombian Air Force.
The investigation was aided by INTERPOL and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), which played an important role in identifying and combating the criminal networks responsible for sending planes loaded with cocaine from South America to West Africa.
The interlocutor of Vijesti from the foreign security service said that large seizures on the high seas force transnational cocaine smugglers to change both the method of smuggling and the route, and that West Africa is a well-known transit point in the global drug trade.
MAOC-N said that they will continue to make efforts with partner countries in the fight against drug smuggling by sea and air, which are mostly destined for Europe.
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