DRUGS SMUGGLED ON CRUISE SHIPS, U.S. OFFICIALS SAY

NEW YORK -- With the arrests Saturday of two cruise ship employees as
their vessel docked in Manhattan, federal law enforcement officials
revealed the existence of an unusual drug ring that they said used
luxury ocean liners to funnel cocaine, hashish and marijuana from New
York City to the island of Bermuda.

These officials estimated that the operation, which involved slightly
more than a dozen people with code names like ``Fidel,'' ``007,''
``Ratty'' and ``Puny,'' accounted for 25 percent to 50 percent of the
illegal drugs flowing into Bermuda in recent years.

And they said the method of smuggling was strikingly atypical,
thrusting a high-stakes, illegal activity into an atmosphere
associated with pleasure and escape from the grittier side of life.

``You never think that while you're on vacation, you're in the midst
of serious drug smuggling,'' said Jodi Avergun, an assistant U.S.
attorney prosecuting seven of the defendants in the case. ``You think
you're safe and secure on a cruise to Bermuda but, in fact, there are
drug smugglers serving you lunch or making your meal.''

Diane Ingalls, a spokeswoman for the federal Drug Enforcement
Administration, which was involved in the investigation, said that
eight of the 13 people arrested since March in connection with the
operation held jobs with Celebrity or Norwegian cruise lines, most of
them in low-paying kitchen positions. Ingalls stressed that the cruise
lines had cooperated fully in the investigation.

The remaining five defendants coordinated drop-offs and money
transfers in either New York or Jamaica, law enforcement officials
said. All have been charged with conspiracy to distribute narcotics;
three additional people are being sought by investigators, Ingalls
said.

Officials identified the mastermind of the operation as Delroy
Andrews, 43, of Brooklyn. Andrews, they said, orchestrated the
transport of drugs from Jamaica to New York City and then to Bermuda.

Avergun said it was unclear whether the cruise-line workers carrying
drugs from New York to Bermuda and money from Bermuda back to New York
had been recruited before or after they took jobs aboard the ships.
But she said that ship workers in general attract less scrutiny, and
go through less rigorous inspections, than tourists traveling the same
route do.

Ingalls noted a second clever rationale behind the smuggling scheme.
``You're losing a certain amount of overhead by using someone who has
a legitimate means to be on the boat,'' she said.

The operation began to come to light two years ago, when authorities
in Bermudas arrested one of the suspects with drugs. Using information
he provided, Bermudian and U.S. authorities conducted surveillance and
posed as drug customers in Bermuda to catch others involved in the
scheme.

The couriers usually carried relatively small quantities of the drugs,
sometimes tucking them inside bedsheets and carrying them off the
ships while the vessels were docked in Bermuda, officials said.

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Checked-by: Rich O'Grady