Rogue ship breaks arrest   London, 29 October  2003
                The  one that got away

Multi-million dollar cargoes are once again at risk of being stolen after a  
ship operated by an organised group based in the Lebanon broke arrest from  
Banjul, Gambia, in the early hours of 25th October 2003, warns ICC International 
 Maritime Bureau (IMB). 
CIUTA (IMO no.8030960) was one of at least two ships operating in the Eastern 
 Mediterranean, North African and West African coasts, duping shippers out of 
 cargoes by offering bargain freight rates. Instead of discharging the 
cargoes at  their destinations, the ship s have been changing identity and deviating 
to  other ports to illegally discharge the goods. 
"It is all too easy at present for criminal vessels such as this to change  
their identity, disappear and avoid the legal sanctions." said IMB's director,  
Captain Pottengal Mukundan. "Until the embossing of the IMO number on the 
hull  of the vessel becomes mandatory, it is extremely difficult to locate and 
seize  the vessel in another port." 
He added:"The marking of the IMO number visibly on the hull of the vessel is  
part of the ISPS Code and will be phased in over the next few years, after 
the  Code comes into effect on 1st July 2004." 
The first reported cargo theft by this group came to light in September 2002  
when a 1969-built general cargo ship, LUCKY III loaded a steel cargo in 
Istanbul  and headed for Lagos, Nigeria. The ship subsequently deviated and 
finished up  illegally selling her cargo in Lattakia, Syria. In November 2002, the 
same ship,  having changed her name to STAR and flying the Tongan flag, was 
chartered to  take a consignment of polyethylene from Libya to Morocco. Once 
again, she headed  to Lattakia and discharged the cargo under false documentation. 
The IMB has  learned that since leaving Lattakia, the ship has again changed 
names. 
In December 2002, PANCIU, a 1980-built general-cargo ship, flying the North  
Korean flag, loaded a shipment of bagged cement in Alexandria, Egypt. The  
shipment was intended for two consignees in Conakry, Guinea. Ship's identity was  
changed at sea to CIUTA and she deviated to Banjul, Gambia, where the cement 
was  sold to a local buyer. Fortunately, the ship was apprehended after an 
alert  local shipping agent in Banjul tipped off the IMB and the local 
authorities. She  was arrested under a court order of the Gambian Supreme Court. Since 
her arrest,  two armed naval guards were stationed aboard 24-hours. The ship 
however  absconded in the early hours of 25 October 2003, with Mr Famara Faye, 
one of the  guards, still onboard. 
Given the previous history of the ship it is highly likely that CIUTA will be 
 re-named, re-flagged and return to cargo theft operations. 

International Maritime Bureau 
ICC Commercial Crime Services          



************************************** See what's new at http://www.aol.com

¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html

To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤