Pacific Magazine reports that at least five I-Kiribati and Tuvaluan seamen were caught red-handed recently for drug trafficking in the United States and are being held in Newark, New Jersey, awaiting a court hearing.
A report from South Pacific Marine Service, an agency recruiting seamen from both countries to work on German vessels said that on July 17, AB Teumwa Tebouaki, OS Eritana Rab’aere and Temeamea Kaunta were caught with eight kilograms, or 17 pounds, of heroin hidden in their cabins.
These I-Kiribati crew had heroin with the street valued of about $680,00.
Fourteen days later, QS Kafi Manoa and AB Mataio Temoai were also caught by U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency officers with heroin in their possession. SPMS said the drugs were bought in Port Cabello, Venezuela.
“Most of our seamen involved in drug trafficking often used giveaway mobile phones or accepted them as gifts from strangers, who told our seamen they can even used them to call home or their friends,” said an SPMS official. “But the seamen didn’t realized that these phones were in fact traps, it keeps track of their whereabouts.”
These strangers often hide drugs onboard our ships and phoned their connections to collect and deliver them at certain destinations. “At these destinations, they were met and arrested,” SPMS said.
SPMS had earlier warned its seamen not to touch or accept these communication devices, but that advice seems to be ignored by the seamen and as a result, a lot of them have lately been arrested by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.
SPMS said if the five seamen found guilty, they could face a minimum of 15 years in jail.
