Bulker Held for 15 Months in India During Cocaine Investigation Released

 

The Vietnamese-owned bulker Debi has finally been released by the courts in India after being held for 15 months. The vessel was first detained after cocaine was found hidden aboard the ship while it was in transit which later resulted in a dispute over port fees. 

India’s High Court in Orissa signed off on the release of the vessel (37,000 dwt and built in 2012) which is registered in Panama. The owners owed nearly $1 million in port fees to Orissa for the time the vessel was detained. For part of the time, it was in the anchorage and the remainder on berth. The crew had gone on strike last November when the ship moved to the dock to resupply a year after the ship was detained. The crew had refused to do any additional work until they were released.

The owners of the vessel and the Paradip International Cargo Terminal are reported to have reached an out-of-court settlement, the details of which were not released. The admiralty judge after reviewing the settlement agreed that there was no reason for the case to continue and said the ship was released. The Debi however as of today shows it remains at the port according to its AIS signal.

The vessel was traveling from Asia to Denmark to transport a cargo of steel plate when it made the port stop in Paradip, India. A dockworker noticed suspicious packages attached to the underside of one of the deck cranes and reported it to the authorities. The packages were found to contain 22 kg of cocaine which was seized on November 30, 2023. The street value of the cocaine was reported at over $25 million. 

Indian authorities searched the vessel and ordered the crew to be detained while they investigated the smuggling. The crew’s personal electronics were seized, but they remained in limbo. One crewmember jumped overboard in a possible suicide attempt after a dispute on the ship which was blamed on the crew’s long detention. A junior engineer he was rescued and taken to a hospital while the remainder of the crew continued to wait. Finally, in December 2024, the court ordered the crew could begin to leave and 11 went home on December 23 while nine replacements took their positions. The others were expected to leave once their replacements arrived. The reports said of the 21 crewmembers, 17 were from Vietnam.

The port fees continued to accumulate while the vessel was detained in the port. The ship was officially arrested in February 2024 and in August the court had ordered it sold. The court last week ordered a refund of more than $27,000 in court fees to the terminal operator.

International associations have increasingly highlighted cases such as the Debi where vessels and their crews are being routinely detained for smuggling charges or other infractions. Crewmembers have also been convicted on charges related to the discovery of narcotics aboard their ships without ever being directly linked to the smuggling operation. Unions are calling for fairer treatment and expedited processing of crews in these cases.

In the case of the Debi, the authorities repeatedly said they were investigating but no charges were ever filed against the crew. The cocaine was concealed out of sight and it was unclear if the crew was aware or if the ship was simply a courier in the case with the crew unaware that the drugs had been stashed aboard.