Police on Wednesday, November 9, arrested 8 American cruise passengers who tried to leave Jamaica with cocaine (total weight 912 pounds/~414 kg) valued at ~USD 130 million.
According to the police, they were part of a transnational drug trafficking syndicate operating between the US and Jamaica.
The Jamaica CCU (Constabulary Force's Corporate Communications Unit) said the eight cruise passengers had arrived in Ocho Rios Jamaica from PortMiami Florida USA on Wednesday and disembarked the ship.
At ~1:30 pm they were reboarding the ship for departure when anomalies had been detected in their luggage.
CCU further stated that during a search by the Narcotics Division's members, a total of 24x packages containing cocaine weighing 17,2 kilograms/38 pounds (each) had been found concealed in their bags.
The cruise ship tourists were arrested for breaches of the Dangerous Drugs Act.
The police said their identities were being withheld pending further investigations.
According to Ocho Rios port's schedule, MSC Seashore was the only cruise ship at the port on Wednesday, arriving from Miami. The liner is on a 15-day Caribbean Bahamas cruise roundtrip from Miami (October 29 thru November 13).
For more MSC Seashore incidents and accidents see the ship's CruiseMinus page.