Search Warrant News

The U.S. Navy accused a sailor of setting the 2020 fire on the USS Bonhomme Richard, but it refuses to release records in the case as the law requires.Despite a 2016 law requiring more transparency of court-martials, the U.S. Navy is refusing to release nearly all court documents in a high-profile case in which a sailor faces life in prison.Seaman Recruit Ryan Mays, 21, has been charged with aggravated arson and hazarding a vessel in the 2020 fire that destroyed the USS Bonhomme Richard.

Authorities have made a major drug bust from a containership bound for Australia.Earlier this month, Australian Federal Police (AFP) were tipped that the containership MSC Joanna allegedly contained a large quantity of cocaine on board, and authorities tracked the vessel as it made its way to Sydney.Through Maritime Border Command, ABF officers provided ongoing monitoring of the vessel, including planning the aerial and on-water response. Aerial surveillance observed a man launching a small vessel from Taren Point and meeting the MSC Joana off the coast of Sydney before sunrise on March 11. Police allege 11 green lidded crates containing 199 blocks of cocaine were offloaded from the cargo vessel at sea and transported to the smaller vessel…

U.S. agents searched the offices of a California-based wood importer this week as part of a broadening government crackdown on imports of illegally harvested timber, according to a previously unreported federal search warrant seen by Reuters. The Department of Homeland Security agents are probing whether privately held Global Plywood & Lumber Inc violated U.S. and Peruvian law by importing wood that officials say was taken from the Amazon without proper permits, according to the warrant filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California in San Diego on Monday and executed on Tuesday. No charges have been brought against the company. A Homeland Security spokesman in Houston said the investigation was ongoing.

An official ceremony marking the handing back by the U.K. Maritime and Coastguard Agency of a bronze cannon to the city where it was first made, has been held in Zierikzee, Netherlands. The cannon had been brought ashore by commercial diver Vincent Woolsgrove from off the Kent coast but was recovered by the MCA during a search warrant executed in 2011. Woolsgrove was charged with fraud offences relating to other Dutch cannons and is currently serving a two year sentence after pleading guilty.

A commercial diver has pleaded guilty at Southampton Crown Court to a fraud offence in excess of £46,000 following a two year investigation by the U.K. Maritime & Coastguard Agency (MCA). The diver, Vincent Woolsgrove of Ramsgate, Kent, reported finding five cannons during the summer 2007, two from the wreck of the warship, London, and three in international waters off the coast of Kent. The cannons recovered from the warship were both very rare bronze Peter Gill and commonwealth cannons.

According to a report from the AFP, Interpol has issued a global search warrant for two former officials of Vietnam's troubled state-owned shipbuilder. The wanted pair are Ho Ngoc Tung, former chief finance officer of Vinashin (Vietnam Shipbuilding Industry Group) and Giang Kim Dat, former business manager of a Vinashin subsidiary.   Source: AFP

Je Yong Lee, Chief Engineer of the M/V Sohoh pled guilty in United States District Court to three federal felony crimes. Defendant Lee admitted to keeping and presenting a false log book that concealed the dumping of waste oil and sludge from his ship, obstructing a United States Coast Guard investigation and witness tampering for telling crew members to lie to a federal grand jury in Anchorage. The plea was announced by Timothy M. Burgess, United States Attorney for Alaska and Thomas L. Sansonetti, Assistant Attorney General for the Environment Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. "Crimes against our environment, including those that take place in the waters off our coasts, will not be tolerated," said Sansonetti.

Maritime businesses are increasingly becoming the subject and target of federal criminal investigations. This is due, in part, to the increased emphasis on the enforcement of the criminal provisions of labor, customs and environmental regulatory provisions. A federal investigation of a business or corporation typically begins with federal agents serving a grand jury subpoena requiring the business to produce corporate records and documents. The subpoena requires that the business undertake a diligent and thorough search for the documents called for by the subpoena. Typically, the subpoena will also require that the business present a…

Coast Guard Investigative Service, Coast Guard Marine Safety Office Miami and Immigration and Naturalization Service agents teamed up to crack two cases of merchant marine document fraud out of Miami July 3. The agencies served and executed search warrants at two locations on the Miami River, helping agents to collect evidence in support of an eight month CGIS investigation; resulting in a series of arrests. The documents seized during this operation included medical certifications, Standards for Training Certification and Watchstanders, employment letters that stated individuals were employees of maritime companies to help obtain U.S.

Karin J. Immergut, United States Attorney for the District of Oregon, Debra W. Yang, United States Attorney for the Central District of California, Donald P. Sims, Special Agent in Charge of the Portland Area Office, Criminal Investigation Division of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA-CID), United States Coast Guard Rear Admiral Jeffrey Garrett, Commander 13th Coast Guard District, and United States Coast Guard Captain Paul Jewell, Captain of the Port, Portland, announced today that Fujitrans Corporation, a Japanese transportation company, pled guilty to four felony charges for violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships, Title 33, United States Code, Section 1908(a) and Title 33, Code of Federal Regulations, Sections 151.25(a), (d) and (h).

Duk Jo Jeong, a first assistant engineer of a Toyota car carrier ship, pled guilty to making a false statement to the United States Coast Guard concerning the disposal of waste oil aboard the Cygnus. The Cygnus car carrier ship which transported automobiles between Japan and the United States. Jeong was immediately sentenced to two years of probation by Judge Garr M. King; he will then be deported to Korea. Judge King noted that Jeong, a Korean national, had already been involuntarily detained in Portland for six months during the pendency of his case. As First Assistant Engineer of the Cygnus, Jeong was responsible for overseeing all of the operations of the engine room, including the disposal of waste oil.