Detained Baltic Spirit container ship arrives at port for inspection
A container vessel detained on suspicion of links to smugglers was moved to the Port of Muuga, near Tallinn, on Wednesday, so more thorough investigations can be carried out by the Estonian authorities.
On Tuesday at 5:10 p.m., personnel from the Tax and Customs Board, a police special unit and the navy detained the cargo vessel "Baltic Spirit", sailing under the Bahamian flag near Naissaar, an island on Estonia's north coast. The ship was heading for Russia from Ecuador.
Tax and Customs Board media relations specialist Pavel Prokopenko said the ship will arrive at the port on Wednesday to begin a more thorough customs inspection.
"Currently, members of the K-Commando unit and officials from the Tax and Customs Board's investigative department are on board. The vessel is in the pilotage area and is waiting for a berth to become available," he said.
The agency said the 188-meter-long vessel is not connected to Russia's "shadow fleet" nor is it subject to European Union sanctions.
"It should be kept in mind that this is not a small vessel. It has a large number of containers, all of which need to be inspected. So the operation continues," said head of the K-Commando unit Marek Aas said on Tuesday.
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Editor: Helen Wright, Aleksander Krjukov
