Yet another cruise ship passenger reportedly has been hauled off a vessel in Bermuda for arriving in the country with marijuana -- the second such incident in less than three weeks.
Bermuda's Royal Gazette today reports Patrick Gallo, 27, of New York was taken into custody on Saturday on Royal Caribbean's Explorer of the Seas after police found 2.5 grams of cannabis in his cabin.
The news outlet says Gallo pleaded guilty Wednesday in a Bermuda court to bringing the drug into the country and was sentenced to pay a $1,500 fine.
The Royal Gazette quotes Bermuda's Crown counsel as saying Gallo was caught with the drug after ship security officers smelled marijuana smoke wafting from his cabin.
The arrest came less than three weeks after another cruiser, George Koumoulis, 37, of Abingdon, Md., was removed from the Norwegian Dawn after police found 7.66 grams of cannabis in his cabin. He, too, was found guilty and sentenced to pay a $1,500 fine, according to the Royal Gazette.
Bermuda is known for its strict laws on drug possession, as well as for using drug-sniffing dogs to search for illegal substances on cruise ships, and its police force has made several drug-related arrests of cruise ship passengers in recent years -- sometimes holding them for days on the island. Two such arrests over the course of just a few weeks, however, is rare.
The most recent such case before this summer occurred last fall when the Bermuda police arrested a Pennsylvania man on another Norwegian Cruise Line ship, the Norwegian Majesty, for possessing 7.59 grams of marijuana. He also eventually was fined $1,500. A similar incident in 2008 involving a cruise passenger from Maine also resulted in a $1,500 fine.
Source: USA Today
Off Radar Comment
The incidents of Drug Trafficking on board Cruise Ships clearly seems to be growing, although its always been there and perhaps more people are actually getting caught now. One would think it was a "No Brainer" to even try such a thing on board a Cruise Ship with the increased security of ISPS these days.
Another point worth mentioning is that someone needs to check the checker! When I used to manage a British Passenger vessel a decade ago, we caught the Security trafficking and after an investigation we determined that it had been going on for months!
