This is one of the most curious narcos smuggling cases I've encountered
A large commercial ship was raided not once, not twice
but three times on the same journey — twice by police and once by an armed band of mercenaries
The Mob Reporter here with the amazing tale of the Trudy, a humble hard-working ship that everyone
suddenly wanted. Well, not want her so much as what she was secretly holding — which was more than $135
million dollars worth of high-grade cocaine. And maybe a whole lot more. Let me tell you about it
French police found more than a ton of cocaine hidden inside
Trudy. In a different port, Dutch authorities found another 529 kilos
And in between? Astonishingly, a mercenary band swarmed Trudy at night to do a search of its own
Trudy is a bulk carrier sailing under the Liberian flag. She's 185 meters long and 24 meters wide
She was built in 2009, and after a recent stint based in Baltimore, began her wild adventure
from South America on Sept. 4th, 2021, when she left Munguba, a small inland riverport in Brazil, on
a tributary of the mighty Amazon River. There she was loaded down with kaolin, a white chalky mineral
It took a few days short of a month for her to trundle across the Atlantic, up the coast of
Africa, past Cape Verde and the Canary Islands, and then into the English Channel, the world's busiest
shipping lane. It's a trip of more than 5,000 miles. On Oct. 1st, 2021, acting on information from U.S.
intelligence, France's customs agents and coast guard intercepted Trudy in French waters and
diverted her to port at Dunkirk. This is video of Trudy at sea, given to me by French customs agents
After several hours of searching, assisted by a drug-sniffing dog, officers found 40 large bags
hidden behind a partition in the ship's gym. It tested positive for cocaine and weighed 1,127 kilos
And we see it spread out here. It's the largest coke seizure in a French port since
2018 and pegged with a value of 80 million euros. That's almost $91 million U.S. dollars
Trudy's 19-man crew of Russians, Filipinos, Ukrainians, Romanians and Ethiopians were
detained by police, so a new captain and crew were brought in by the ship's German owner
The discovery made headlines in Europe. It seems someone reading those stories had secret intimate
knowledge, and compared the weight of the product the French were boasting of finding
— or perhaps they scrutinized these photos of the bags — and concluded a lot more was still on board
Acting with unexpected brazenness, they went to get it
During the night of Oct. 10th, while Trudy was stood under government control, a squad of seven
to ten hooded men stormed the gates of the Dunkirk port and boarded Trudy. The bandits spoke in broken
English, French and Arabic, the crew told police. The mercenaries tied the crew up and held them
hostage. The captain was shown a photograph of a ship's door and told to take them to it. The door
was never matched to any of Trudy's. It's possible the commandos were unaware the crew was new and
perhaps not very familiar with Trudy's nooks and crannies, because after three or four hours
of searching and trying to persuade the crew to cooperate, the gang left before the morning light
After 17 days in Dunkirk's port, Trudy was finally released and she motored along to
Antwerp, Belgium, to deliver part of her load and then to Rotterdam, Netherlands to deliver the rest
In the Netherlands — with her holds now empty — authorities gave her another look
And on Oct, 27th, in Trudy's port hold, officers found 529 kilos of cocaine —
a load that had escaped the French agents, their sniffer dogs, and the mercenaries. Here it is
although we don't get a great look at the individual bricks. This brings the estimated
resale value of both of Trudy's loads to around 120 million euros, authorities said, which is about
$135 million U.S. dollars. This is presumably what the mercenaries were looking for, but never found. But
don't think that's the last twist in Trudy's tale, because there is this: a U.S. law enforcement source
was quoted as saying the Americans believe Trudy was carrying closer to three tons of
cocaine when she left South America. If they're right, where's the rest? Here's a possible answer:
When Trudy passed by Cape Verde, an African island in the central Atlantic Ocean, there
was a motor yacht sailing under a Polish flag in the same area, called La Rosa. In between the
French find and the Dutch find on Trudy, two navy boats from Senegal intercepted La Rosa
in international waters off the West African coast. That's what you see here, on Oct. 17
Senegalese authorities said they found 2,026 kilos of cocaine on board the yacht
It was hidden behind the passenger cabins in about 100 waterproof canvas bags. Five
crew members were arrested: two Senegalese, two from Guinea, and one from Sierra Leone
It's the largest find ever by the Senegalese navy and is a good reminder
of the emerging importance of the West African coast as a hub in the global smuggling trade — used
as a haven and a waypoint between South America and Europe. Now investigators suggest the packaging
of the cocaine found on La Rosa is the same as at least some of the bricks found on Trudy. It
could have been that when Trudy was dilly dallying around the Atlantic islands, some of her crew were
unloading more than half her secret cargo at an ocean rendezvous with the yacht. That would bring
the potential resale value of the whole shebang into the neighborhood of $280 million dollars
If so, Trudy had quite a valuable, logistical operation behind her — three separate secret
loads, heading to three different destinations, for three distinct customers, all on the one dangerous
journey. And with all three capers gone dreadfully astray, perhaps that means three angry narco gangs
now looking for answers, just as much as several government agencies. Meanwhile, back in France, the
investigation is making headway. According to Le Parisien, police have linked the DNA from two of
Trudy's original crew to the cocaine packaging they found. In their quarters, they discovered
a phone allegedly containing incriminating evidence — including communications with their boss
As I record this, the mercenaries are still at large. And Trudy is back to work, on the move again
I'm tracking her now going 11.9 knots through the North Sea
on her way to the port of Kaliningrad, in Russia. I wonder what they might find when she arrives
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