HAMAL

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Captain and Mate of Drug-Smuggling Tug Get 20 Years

On Friday, Aug. 12, a British court sentenced tug captain Mumin Sahin, 47, and first officer Emin Ozmen, 51, to two decades imprisonment for trafficking cocaine – $660 million worth, the biggest drug bust in UK history. Last April, Britain’s National Crime Agency received a tip from French authorities that the tug Hamal was under way in the North Sea with an illicit cargo. The vessel was flagged in Tanzania, and the Crown Prosecution Service said that it worked quickly with an advisor to obtain flag state permission to board her in international waters. http://maritime-executive.com/article/captain-and-mate-of-drug-smuggling-tug-get-20-years

UK Convicts Captain, First Mate of Drug Trafficking

The captain and first officer of an ocean going tug boat have been found guilty of drug trafficking following the biggest ever U.K. seizure of class A drugs, the country’s National Crime Agency (NCA) announced. The cocaine, worth an estimated potential street value of £512 million once adulterated, was found hidden aboard the Tanzanian flagged MV Hamal in April 2015. The vessel had been intercepted by the Royal Navy destroyer HMS Somerset and Border Force cutter HMC Valiant in the North Sea approximately 100 miles off the coast of Aberdeenshire. They were acting on intelligence supplied by the NCA, working in cooperation with the French customs investigation service DNRED and the U.K.’s National Maritime Information Centre. NCA officers were deployed on HMS Somerset as the MV Hamal was boarded and escorted into the Port of Aberdeen. After the vessel arrived in port on Friday, April 24 the cutter crew and specialist Border Force deep rummage teams commenced a search, alongside NCA and Scottish Police Authority forensic teams. Read more at http://www.marinelink.com/news/convicts-captain-first412582.aspx

UK, Tanzania forces intercept 1.5bn/- worth cocaine haul

AUTHORITIES in Tanzania and the United Kingdom have seized the biggest ever consignment of cocaine estimated at a street value of £512 million (about1.5bn/-). Following the seizure on Monday this week, a Scottish High Court convicted the captain and first officer of an ocean-going tug boat of drug trafficking. Following a 12-week trial at the High Court in Glasgow, Ship Captain Mumin Sahin and First Mate Emin Ozmen were found guilty of two counts of drug trafficking. They will be sentenced on August 12. The cocaine, with an estimated potential street value of 1.5bn/- and a weight of 3.2 tonnes, was found hidden on board the Tanzanian-flagged MV Hamal in April 2015 off the coast of Scotland. UK authorities were only able to stop the vessel in international waters due to the cooperation of Tanzania. The MV Hamal is owned by the Kiev Shipping and Trading Corporation and had an all Turkish crew. Before being apprehended in Scotland, ship logs showed the MV Hamal had sailed from Turkey to West Africa, Tenerife and Guyana. Contacted yesterday, Police Spokesperson Advera Bulimba said she was outside her office and thus could not be able to make follow-up on the matter. “I am not in the office now; and I can only comment if I have enough information,’’ she said in a telephone interview. http://dailynews.co.tz/index.php/home-news/51682-uk-tanzania-forces-intercept-1-5bn-worth-cocaine-haul