Russian sailors were accused of smuggling a large batch of cocaine. Neither the state nor the shipowner got in touch with their families. Updated

11 Russian sailors from January 31 have been detained in the city of Praya-the capital of the island state of Cabo-Verde. These are the islands of the Green Cape, West Africa, 600 km from the coast. And 7 thousand kilometers from Murmansk, from where the crew of the Cocaine Cocaine of the ESER vessel came from. Whether the sailors will return home and when, their loved ones can only guess: there is no connection with the crew, the shipowner is silent, the state is also in no hurry to come into contact with the relatives of the prisoners.

-The Russian consul called me on the 2nd day, confirmed that his brother was in custody, said that he had a free lawyer. I don't know anything else. The fact that the court appointed them arrested from the news. We get all the details only from the media, ”says Natalia Grave, sister of the detained sailor Vadim Yamnov.

On Sunday, desperate to achieve accurate information, Natalia in social networks invited the relatives of the prisoners to get in touch with each other - it is easier. Some responded, but they can’t find everyone: there is still no open list of crew members in the public domain. It is possible that close to some sailors do not even know about their arrest. The name, the cause and circumstances of the death of a crew member, who died during the flight are also unknown: to send the body home, a land cargo and made an unscheduled visit to Praya, where he was inspected and detained.

The history of the Eser dry cargo, obviously, will be included in forensic textbooks.

The world has not yet seen such a batch of cocaine - 9.5 tons, for each of the crew members it accounted for almost a ton. “Escobaru never dreamed,” they joke in the comments to the news.

The most loud in a series of cocaine scandals with Russian participation - after two tons intercepted in Belgium in briquettes with the United Russia logo and 400 kilograms in suitcases from the Russian embassy in Argentina. Only instead of a quick, but risky aircraft manufacturing, merchants this time used a slow, but more reliable - sea. More reliable - because the crew of the dry cargo is not about the nature of the “baggage”: the containers are not opened, not inspected, the captain is responsible for their integrity. You can use people at all - if something happens, the crew members will answer for smuggling. The consignor may be known to the captain, who, however, cannot verify the authenticity of the documents: the contractor concludes the contracts.

The Eser dry cargo is 34 years old, during the construction it was called "St. Helena" and until 2013 he went under the German flag. For the past 6 years, it has been owned by a Turkish company with the endless name: Gemiciler DenizCilik Nakliyat Spor Yapi Tesisleri Sanayi Ve Ticaret Ltd Sti. However, the shipowner, that is, the dry cargo operator, is another legal entity, in open sources, the Panama company STEP SHIPPING CORP is such in the open sources.

Registration of foreign ships under the Panama flag is a common practice, since the open marine register of offshore allows not only to move away, but also to hide the name of the beneficiary. According to Panama legislation, only the names of the appointed directors of the company are subject to mandatory registration in the state register of companies. In our case, the directors are under the clearly fictional names of Haluk Buzluk and Huseyin Turkmen.

However, it is quite possible that the names of the consignors will not remain a mystery: the Cabo-Verde police had operational information about the presence of cocaine on board the dry cargo. So, it can also own information about the source of traffic.

According to the Marine Traffic site, on December 5, the dry cargo ship left Seuta, heading for Morocco. In Spain, a ship coming from Panama was apparently repaired.

Natalia Swallow says that the last time his brother called his mother on January 30, on the eve of the detention. He said that on February 27 he flew home: under the contract, he was reported to work “two in one” - two months in the sea, one on vacation, on the shore.

“Apparently, they have already taken tickets, since he accurately called the date,” says Natalia. - He did not say anything about the load, they never know what they are being taken. This is a dry cargo: Containers are lucky - and that’s it. He only said that the ship in very poor technical condition, all the time they stopped somewhere, broke. He said that the connection is very bad, cannot often call. Our mother is disabled, in serious condition, he tried not to worry her, so he did not report the details of the death of a crew member. As far as I know, it was an old man. He was just his brother and invited him to this ship. Prior to this, Vadim went on the Vladivostok refrigerator, wrote off from there and flew to Panama. At the beginning of winter, I escorted him to the plane. Brother has been going to sea for 20 years. In the "tralflot" and on dry loads.

Why sailors from Murmansk-Port Cities-are forced to hire on ships under the flags of offshore companies, it is known. The Russian fishing and commercial fleets did not really go out of the crisis of the early 90s, there are few ships, there are not enough jobs. The sailor of the sailor on a cargo ship detained in Cabo-Verda was only $ 1,100 a month. Without any business trips, per diem and so on. The same amount in Murmansk is a modest ensign on some checkpoint. But even this money for sailors, whose profession was considered the highest paid and prestigious in the north, is now luck.

Naturally, there is no need to look for any social guarantees and compliance with labor law on offshore courts. This is a slave labor. And the death of the Eser Starpom on the flight is not an exceptional case at all.

Natalia does not believe that Vadim will remain in the African prison for a long time. He says he is a simple sailor, is it really not clear that he knew nothing about the load? However, as the laws of Cabo-Verda, the participation of the Cabo-Verda, albeit involuntary, ordinary sailors in the smuggling of drugs, are regarded, she does not know. The official accusation of the Murmansk residents has not yet been brought. The conversation with the consul was short, he did not report any details. He only clarified that the embassy would try to establish the connection of relatives with a lawyer. Since then - no information.

The last message on the website of the Russian embassy in Cabo-Verda is about the children's matinee on December 28. About the fate of the detainees of the Murmansk residents - not a word.

Tatyana Britskaya, "New", Murmansk

Cocaine International

There is reason to assume that the detention of the Eser vessel was a special operation of international drug trafficks.

On the sixth day from the moment of the detention in the port of Praya in the cabin of the Eser vessel, on board which 9.5 tons of cocaine worth more than a billion dollars were found on board, only 11 Russian sailors are known for certain.

True, the Cabo-Verde police disseminated the message that she received information about a large batch of cocaine on board the ship from Maritime Analysis and Operation Center (Maoc). MAOS translated into Russian means "Marine Center for Analysis and Operational Activities." This organization with headquarters in Lisbon was created in 2006 to counteract drug trafficking. MAOS includes representatives of the seven states - France, Ireland, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Portugal and Great Britain.

And the information has already leaked that special forces of France and Portugal participated in the detention of the Eser vessel. Which gives reasons for the assumption that the ship was captured in neutral waters and was cut into the nearest port in Cabo-Verda.

Information about drugs on board the ESER vessel agents Maos reported, as soon as the ship loaded and hit the road. In Maos, it was also known in which specific containers were cocaine. By the way, containers were sealed by customs in the port of departure. The police are now at the disposal of the cargo nothing (this is a variety of consumer invoices that the cargo carrier accepted the cargo and pledged to the port indicated by the cargo owner).

The detention of the Eser vessel with 9.5 tons of cocaine on board is not the first major success of Maos in the fight against drug trafficking.

In October last year, 5 tons of cocaine were intercepted in the Spanish Malaga. Already this year, on January 15, the drug collectors of Italy and Spain conducted a joint operation and intercepted 2.7 tons of cocaine on board the ship, which came from Honduras to Barcelona.

On January 30, a day before the detention in the cabin of the Eser vessel with the Russian crew, the SEA Scan 1 vessel with a crew, which includes eight Ukrainians and one citizen of Georgia, the Netherlands and France, was detained off the coast of Portugal. On board the vessel, the Portuguese police discovered 2.5 tons of cocaine.

Irek Murtazin, "New"

The mysterious island

The causes of the death of two Ukrainian sailors who died last year on board the Turkish ship off the coast of Cabo-Verde are still unknown.

In early May 2018, relatives of two Ukrainian sailors, residents of Kherson, assistant captain Nikolai Lukashov and on-board mechanic Alexander Chervonoy (both since February were on the Atlantic Harmony vessel, which was at that moment in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of the island state of the Cabo-Verde) received official notifications about the death of their loved ones. Messages came mean: both men died a natural death. The reasons were not reported, but it became known that another member of the crew, a citizen of India in the coma. The bodies of the dead were delivered to Cabo-Verda.

The Embassy of Ukraine is not in this country, and therefore relatives rushed to all instances in Kyiv. History received great publicity in the media.

Atlantic Harmony - Turkish ship, went under the flag of Hong Kong and transported at first the mills, then other cargoes. During the last flight, the ship followed from Brazil to Cyprus. Relatives of the sailors answered all the questions of journalists - if only they would help to take their bodies home. The hooking companies, with which Lukashov and Chervonny were settled to work, on the contrary, did not want to comment on anything. The company from the city of Nikolaev generally immediately moved out of the office and took off the sign.

Olga Lukashova, the wife of the assistant captain, said that it is impossible to get to such vessels without intermediaries. Her family, for example, paid one and a half thousand dollars. Olga showed reporters photos sent to her from a cabin from Cabo-Verde:

- Here they provide first aid, but he is already dead. But the first aid kit is disclosed, apparently, he himself tried to somehow help himself at the beginning ...

The relatives found the contacts of four more Kherson sailors who were on the same ship. But none of them answered either calls or Mailes. The widows of Lukashov and Chervonny suggested that the rest were simply intimidated to hide the real reason for the death of comrades. The Turkish shipowner also did not get in touch.

The Foreign Ministry of Ukraine was also not officially notified, they learned about the tragedy near Cabo-Verde only from the families of the dead. Vasily Kirilich, deputy director of the consular department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in an interview with 1+1 television channel, said that he instructed the shipowner and operators of the vessel to immediately ensure the repatriation of bodies, as well as contact the insurance company in London and the representative office of the International Transport Workers. The Consul of Ukraine in Senegal received the task to immediately go to the place - to find out how the investigation is going on. The wives of the sailors also turned to human rights activists with a request to conduct an independent examination of the bodies. Women claimed: according to the data that they have, neither alcohol nor drugs in the blood of Nikolai Lukashov and Alexander Chervonoy were revealed.

On May 26, the bodies of sailors were delivered from Cabo-Verde to Odessa, after the necessary formalities, relatives took the remains to Kherson, bury. The results of the forensic medical examination received the results of the diplomatic channels: asphyxia was called as the cause of death. But without the consent of loved ones, data were not subject to publication and therefore vowel was not devoted. Sources, however, insisted that the examination established the edema of the lungs that arose as a result of unknown reasons, most likely, poisoning.

Olga Musafirova, sob. Corr. "New", Kyiv