Yacht captain arrested with 620 pounds of cocaine

Ooops indeed. Wonder if they seized the yacht?

Hi,

I wonder how many times they made this run un detected

Quite likely: I was on an airplane that was seized because the pilot smuggled a handful of gem stones from India.

(We all did that on a small scale, buy a few rocks in Bombay, sell them at the local jeweler in Texas for twice the price, beer money)

The Feds took the plane for a few hours, but gave it back as the owners were not involved. Perhaps same with this yacht....?

With a name like "Secret Spot", they were just asking to get busted...

I'm sure ultimately the owner will get the yacht back, assuming they had no knowledge. However, when that happens and what condition the yacht is in at that time is another question entirely. We once got a container of goods back four years later. The coast guard has been known to pretty well destroy the interior of boats doing their searches. Now perhaps this wasn't one of those situations.

This type event would scare me if I had a boat being used for charters.

Jajajajajajahhhh!!!

Maybe this Lazarra wasn't all that it was cracked up to be. Might have had excessive blow by or likely the engines weren't so naturally aspirated. But the horn can toot real well. Another boat giving meaning to high seas.

Really though, what a degradation to the yachting community.

That response was very punishing.

You're right about the degradation and there have been several such recently. It's disconcerting to be out with Coast Guard around wondering if they'll be checking you. There was a time that certain brands of go fast boats were immediately considered to be possible indications of drug involvement.

The punishing was referring to Judy's pun filled response and hence included only to be able to send her a pun back.

Next time... punishing.

TMI

I do sort of miss the "Save The Bales" / Miami Vice days of South Florida. Interesting & exciting times (70's/80's). Never knew what or who would wash up. This idiot is about to learn that you can't go back though, and the boat's owner is about to learn a few lessons too. Am I correct in assuming that the insurance will not cover damage done by law enforcement and the subsequent seisure, since the boat was used for drug trafficing (with or without the owner's knowledge)? Could get very expensive for the owner. I've heard of a few boats returned looking like swiss cheese and the aftermath of a frat party. Shame for such a pretty boat.

Actually the insurance coverage is a mixed bag. Most of the time the insurer will deny coverage. However, if you have an appropriate policy with the right riders attached for chartering then those riders would cover against anything resulting from the acts of the persons chartering. Still you could have to jump through hoops. A regular policy wouldn't cover, but then it wouldn't cover any for hire use.

Still things could drag out. For instance, the insurer may decide that the charter company failed to do due diligence and/or knew. Then a whole new set of issues. Insurers on multi million dollar claims do look carefully at who should be liable.

The stories of damage over the years have been wild, although not as much so recently. They've included many boats where no drugs were found and then the Coast Guard just said "oops", often didn't even apologize, and left. I haven't heard as much over the last few years. It would be interesting to find out how much they did in this case, how hidden the drugs were, and how much it led them to looking for more. I'm sure before boarding, the Coast Guard was fully aware it was a chartered boat, so may have shown some restraint. This wasn't just a random check for no reason but a planned one based on information and observation.

You seem to have information I'm not aware of. I didn't hear that the boat was chartered. Chartered or not, I have to think that the insurance company will look on things very differently if the owner's captain is smuggling 620 pounds of coke as opposed to a charter guest smoking a joint. I'm not aware of riders to cover this, but I'm sure some cartels would love to purchase one.

The boat was available for Charter. I can't say it was chartered. It was also for sale. I don't know whether the owner was in any way involved. Obviously, if he was, there is no insurance coverage. As the arrest was made when they were carrying the coke off the boat, I doubt huge damage was done, plus the Captain then cooperated so they could arrest the purchaser. The nature of who the Captain was "working for" in taking the boat out is something I don't know. Was it the owner, was it something he did on his own, or was it someone chartering the boat? I shouldn't have assumed it was chartered.

The story says that the Captain was delivering the drugs to someone else after they got back. I don't think any guests were on board.....owners or chaterers......I've been checked twice in the last 10 years and the USCG was very professional and put everything back where they found it. They did find a .357 handgun under a mattress that they told me should be secured better in the safe. The reason it was there was because I had anchored on the bank (bahamas) the night before......

The Coast Guard typically is going to react professionally if those on the boat treat them with respect, as I'm sure you have.