Narcotics: Ship belonging to Panos Laskaridis seized carrying 850 kg of cocaine

News that the Italian authorities detected in Venice a bulker ship of Greek interests loaded with cocaine worth 150 million euros is “rocking” the shipping industry.

The authoritative TradeWindsnews.com reported the news saying that authorities found the cocaine in 570 parcels, weighing 850 kilograms, on the ship Atlas which belongs to the Laskaridis Shipping company managed by Panagiotis Laskaridis under the flag of Liberia.

P. Laskaridis

The packages were found, according to the police, in the ventilation ducts of the ship sailing off the city of Venice.

According to the information, none of the sailors were arrested but there were ongoing searches on the ship, which begun on Tuesday.

According to the logbook, the ship had set sail from Santos, Brazil, on March 23, arrived off Venice on April 17 and remained anchored there on Friday morning.

The ship’s position according to Marine Traffic

In the article, which is also accompanied by a video, it is emphasized that ships carrying containers are often the target of drug smuggling, however, they can be used by gangs and without the knowledge of sailors and ship owners.

Last month, Europol announced that at least 200 tonnes of cocaine had been transported through the European Union’s two busiest ports by criminal gangs, who “obtained unique container codes from informants”.

A report reveals that this particular tactic has been on the rise since 2018 when the port of Rotterdam discovered that containers were missing, misplaced or dumped.

Drug cartels pay hundreds of thousands of euros to corrupt individuals to provide the unique details of a container that is assigned once payment is made for the shipment.

This particular practice is known as “PIN code fraud”, the publication concludes.

In Sicily

According to the Italian newspaper, Il Fatto Quotidiano, economic police investigators do not rule out the possibility that the discovery of 850 kilograms of cocaine on Thursday is connected to what happened off the coast of Sicily a few days ago.

In particular, the Italian police made the largest seizure of drugs, a total of 2 tons of cocaine floating off the coast of Catania.

They were packed in 1,600 small packages, which were waterproofed and tied with buoys so the gang could find them. The total value of the drugs exceeds four hundred million euros.

And that illegal cargo had been transported to that area by commercial ship and then it would have to reach land in small speedboats operated by the traffickers.

In the case of the findings in Venice, the Italian Air Force and Navy proved to have much quicker reflexes and discovered the drugs on board.