On Tuesday at 5:10 p.m., personnel from the Tax and Customs Board, a police special unit and the navy detained the container vessel "Baltic Spirit", sailing under the Bahamian flag near Naissaar, an island on Estonia's north coast.

The 188-meter-long ship was heading for Russia from Ecuador and is now under inspection by the Tax and Customs Board at Muuga Harbor near Tallinn.

Taro told Wednesday's "Aktuaalne kaamera" the task will take approximately 10 hours due to its large size.

Asked why it was necessary to detain the vessel, he said: "If it's potentially a case of international organized smuggling, then it involves international cooperation. Information flows between countries, and this information reached us — that such a ship was in the area and warranted inspection. We cannot tolerate any illegal activity that could take place on Estonian territory, so it had to be checked in any case."

There is speculation that the Baltic Spirit is connected to drug smuggling, but Taro said this cannot be confirmed until the customs inspection has been completed

"What exactly is on board will become clear during the inspection," he told the show.

Asked if the operation was successful, the interior minister said it was because Estonia stopped the ship, took it under the authorities' control and started customs inspection.

"Everyone must understand that if there are suspicious ships that threaten Estonia's order or security and we need to detain them, we do have that capability," Taro added.

Room for improvement

The minister echoed comments by the head of K-Commando Marek Aas when asked what could have been done differently.

Taro said with Estonia's current capabilities, these operations take place with "a somewhat elevated risk."

"We only have one helicopter, and it cannot carry many people if we need to deploy special operators onto a ship. This time, we boarded both from the air and from the sea. To be able to board from the air alone, we would need two helicopters. We would also need a larger K-Commando unit," he said.

"We are managing the tasks of today, but if we think about the future — the challenges in the Baltic Sea are certainly not going to decrease, since Russia likely has no intention of leaving the area. That's why we should look to the future and expand our capabilities."

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