350 kg of Cocaine Found in Cargo Ship’s Sea Chest at Mersin

Turkish police seized 350 kilograms of cocaine from the cargo ship CSPC Pisces at Mersin on September 13. The drugs were packed into 12 bundles and hidden inside the sea chest, the underwater hull section that feeds seawater into the engine cooling system.

The CSPC Pisces had sailed from Brazil and arrived in Mersin on September 11. Officers found the packages below the waterline, in a part of the hull that stays submerged during normal operation. Investigators determined that members of the alleged smuggling network planned to send divers to recover the cocaine from the ship while it was docked in port.

Nine people were arrested. Authorities estimated the street value at TL 1.5 billion, roughly $30.9 million.

Our guide to tracking a cargo vessel explains how to follow ships such as CSPC Pisces on MarineRadar.

For a separate example of drug seizures involving commercial shipping, read our report on the cocaine seizure from a Maersk ship in Portugal. Our guide to analysing a ship’s route history explains how to review recorded vessel movements; tracking data alone does not establish involvement in smuggling.