Police suspect ship, divers smuggled drugs
By Nicole Fuller, The oston Globe Correspondent, 6/1/2003
SOMERSET - A coal ship from Venezuela that docked five days ago may have been used to smuggle illegal drugs into the country, according to federal and state investigators who yesterday scoured the area for three people spotted swimming near the vessel who fled after a local man called out to them.
The sighting of the three divers - who left behind a flo tation device, a wet suit top, air tanks, and flippers - triggered an early morning manhunt involving investigators from six law enforcement agencies.
US Customs agents yesterday questioned the ship's crew and searched the vessel.
Authorities were unsure if the three were crew members or US residents. As of yesterday afternoon, no drugs had been found, and the suspects were still at large.
According to Police Chief James M. Smith, at about midnight Friday an employee taking a break on the roof of the NRG Electric Generating Plant said he saw three people swimming in Taunton River by the northeast corner of the plant.
After the employee called out to them, police say, the divers responded in a language he did not recognize.
They then swam to the shore, leaving their scuba equipment on a rocky stretch of land, police said.
The employee, whom Smith declined to name, immediately called Somerset police.
A Bristol County Sheriff Department's K-9 unit was dispatched to the scene to assist Somerset police, as were investigators from the State Police Dive Team, the FBI, the US Navy's Explosive Ordinance Disposal Team, and US Customs.
A police scuba team searched the waters, and police dogs tracked a scent from the riverbank on to a grassy lot, then lost the trail at an abandoned house.
Investigators have ruled out terrorism, saying there was no indication of explosives.
They suspect that the divers were attempting to retrieve a drug canister attached to the hull of the ship.
Smith said sealed canisters attached to ships by rope ''is a known method of smuggling drugs.''
Investigators said they found no canisters, and believe the three divers may have escaped with one or more.
''We feel that was probably going on there,'' Smith said.
The ship is registered in Poland but arrived in Somerset from Venezuela with a shipment of coal.
This story ran on page B4 of the Boston Globe on 6/1/2003.