A Panamanian-registered cargo vessel has been arrested off the Libyan coast by a Libyan navy petrol on suspicion of smuggling fuel from Libya to Malta. The Levante and now being held in Tripoli.
According to Navy spokesman Captain Ayyub Umru Kassim, the ship was discovered to be carrying 400 tonnes of contraband diesel fuel aboard and was heading to Valletta. Its crew of seven Egyptians are being held with the boat, as is a Maltese national also found aboard. Some reports state he was a passenger, others that he was involved in the alleged smuggling.
Kassim has been quoted by the Libyan news agency LANA saying that the crew have admitted to smuggling and that they had been involved in earlier trips smuggling Libyan fuel to Malta. Documents are reported to have been found aboard indicating that the Levante was involved in four previous fuel-running trips.
The spokesman said that the boat had arrived in the port of Zuara on 2 April carrying six cargo containers and left two days later. As a result of information received, the vessel was followed and boarded the same day by the coast guard and the fuel discovered. The ship was carrying no documentation about it. On board were a number of containers, Kassim said, filled with earth for ballast.
This is the second vessel to be arrested in just under a fortnight on suspicion of smuggling fuel to Malta. On 25 March, an Egyptian vessel, the Fahd Al-Islam, was stopped, again off Zuara. Its 13-man crew, which also includes a Maltese, remain under investigation by the Public Prosecutor’s office. At the time its arrest was announced, LANA stated that documentation discovered on board indicated that it had already made three previous trips to Malta in March alone.
At Libyan petrol stations, the pump price for 400 tonnes of diesel would be around LD 60,000 (€36,000). In Malta it could earn around €620,000.
