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Antigua Department of Marine Services and Merchant Shipping Launches Investigation into Ammunitions Find Aboard the Antigua and Barbuda Flagged Vessel the Motor Vessel "Francop"
- By S Coward
- Published 10-Nov-09
- Crime/Security
- Unrated
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St. John's -- Nov. 10, 2009 -- On November 3rd 2009 at 18:54 hrs UTC (14:54 hrs local time) the Antigua and Barbuda flagged vessel m/v Francop was stopped at sea 160km (100 miles) off the coast of Israel due to reports that ammunitions were being smuggled aboard in containers disguised as civilian cargo.
The Israeli military boarded the vessel with the permission of the Captain to do a cargo inspection at which time approximately 36 containers were found to contain illicit ammunition. These containers were hidden amongst the hundreds of other containers on board.
On November 5th 2009, the Department of Marine Services and Merchant Shipping (ADOMS) was informed that the vessel had been released after the containers with the arms had been removed and that she had arrived at the port of Limassol in Cyprus that morning with all the crew on board. Thereafter the vessel sailed the same day to Beirut Harbour, Lebanon where she is still moored.
Contact has been made by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with the Israeli Authorities and a full report outlining the circumstances leading up to and the findings of this incident is to be submitted to the Government of Antigua and Barbuda. ADOMS has also initiated its own investigation into the matter.