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Five crew members from the product tanker Scot Bremen were detained this week in Belgium after a substantial amount of cocaine was discovered aboard the vessel. The arrests followed a report from the ship's captain regarding suspicious activities among the crew, prompting a search by Belgian customs officials at the port of Zeebrugge.
The Maltese-flagged tanker, operated by a Turkish company, had set sail from the small Brazilian port of Pecem and arrived off the coast of Ostend, Belgium, on Friday, June 20. The vessel anchored offshore to await a pilot before entering the port.
On Sunday, two days after anchoring, the captain became aware that five sailors were hiding suspicious packages. He immediately notified Belgian authorities, canceled the pilot’s boarding, isolated the five crew members in their cabins, and secured their mobile phones as evidence.
Due to poor weather conditions, the police were unable to board the vessel at sea. The tanker remained anchored until Monday evening, June 23, when it sailed to Zeebrugge. Customs officials conducted a thorough inspection at the port and discovered what they described as significant quantities of cocaine on board. While the exact amount and location of the drugs were not disclosed, Belgian and international media reported the find to be in the range of hundreds of kilos.
All five crew members were taken into custody by Belgian police. The captain, who reported the incident and fully cooperated, was questioned as a witness and later released. The company managing the ship, Scot Tankers, stated that both the police and public prosecutors praised the captain's actions in securing the evidence and assisting with the investigation.
The tanker remained moored in Zeebrugge until Thursday, when replacement crew members joined the vessel. It has now been cleared to continue its commercial journey to Zelzate, its next port of call.
In a separate but potentially related incident, eight men were arrested at a marina in Blankenberge on Sunday evening. Authorities observed them attempting to launch a rigid-hulled inflatable boat from the jetty, located about 15 nautical miles from the tanker’s anchorage. Belgian media suggested that these individuals were suspected of trying to reach the tanker offshore to retrieve the concealed cocaine.
The West Flanders public prosecutor’s office confirmed both the arrests in Blankenberge and the cocaine found aboard the ship, but noted that it is too early to determine if the two events are directly connected. The eight suspects are under investigation for suspected involvement in a criminal gang.
The Scot Bremen is a chemical and oil products tanker built in 2003, with a deadweight of 8,200 tons. Previously known as Wappen von Bremen, it was purchased in 2015 by a Turkish ship manager as part of a series of specially-built vessels. The ship typically operates between North America, Northern Europe, and the Mediterranean, but records indicate it made two visits to Pecem, Brazil, this year, once in April and again in early June.
Pecem, a smaller Brazilian port, is becoming a target for drug smugglers, especially as authorities intensify their crackdown on trafficking in larger ports like Santos, Rio de Janeiro, and Paranaguá. Brazil’s Federal Revenue Service has warned that criminal networks are increasingly using smaller regional ports to evade detection.
While smuggling on ships is not uncommon, discovering drugs on tankers is still unusual. The last significant case involving a tanker in shipping history dates back to 2020 when Guatemalan police uncovered cocaine hidden within a cylindrical steel device attached to the hull of the MTM Potomac, a vessel returning from Colombia.
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