BUENOS AIRES: Argentine customs officials seized cocaine worth more than $1 million from two crew members on a luxury cruise ship docked in Buenos Aires, authorities said.
The suspects, both men, were identified only as a Croatian national and a Chilean traveling on an Australian passport.
They were detained as they tried to board Royal Caribbean line’s Splendour of the Seas with packets of cocaine taped to their bodies, Argentina’s AFIP tax agency said in a statement.
Authorities then searched the pair’s cabin on the ship and found 10 additional bricks of cocaine inside a backpack with different kinds of wrapping, some of them with the same pattern as the packets they carried on the suspects’ bodies.
The cruise ship arrived in Buenos Aires on Monday from Punta del Este, Uruguay, and was scheduled to depart for Brazil en route to Europe, where, according to AFIP’s estimate, the 15.8 kilograms (34.8 pounds) of high-purity cocaine would have had a street value of more than $1 million.
