the “Grot-Yug” under arrest in the Port of Souda, Crete, Greece
A small freighter, the “Grot-Yug” under the Sao Tome flag was arrested in the early hours yesterday in Crete and her six member crew too for smuggling cigarettes. The vessel is now at the Port of Souda in Chania.
This is yet another success of the Harbour Corps/ Hellenic Coast Guard whose Paleochora and Chania teams have participated in the operation, following proper use of information collected from respective surveillance by the HC/HCG patrolling airplane and crafts, assisted also by a Special Forces unit of the Harbours Corps of Chania.
The vessel was stopped just south of Crete and following the HC/HCG units boarding it was found that 2, 319 master boxes of cigarettes where found without respective documentation. There wasn’t any manifest and no customs control check nor protocol per shipping practice sealed by the appropriate authorities.
View of the smuggled cigarettes on board the “Grot-Yug”
We will advise of the total value of the smuggled cigarettes and the tax due as well as for the fate of the vessel and her crew after the investigation and the result from the Attorney’s verdict following the appearance of the crew in the local Attorney’s office. Besides these arrests, local where also arrested who were in the group of smugglers to sell/distribute these cigarettes in Crete.
