Venezuela – Illegal Narcotics onboard Vessels 7 January 2011 NO.10-022 The International Group supports efforts by all countries to prevent vessels being used to smuggle illegal narcotics. However, the International Group has become increasingly concerned with what appears to be the indiscriminate and disproportionate application of criminal law in Venezuela in cases where vessels have been targeted by drug smugglers for the carriage of illegal narcotics. New legislation to regulate the investigation and potential prosecution of shipowners and crews in such circumstances recently entered into force on 21 October 2010. The "Organic Drugs Law" ("ODL"), repealed earlier laws and appears to increase the evidential burden and potential penalties imposed on shipowners and their crews. We accordingly wish to draw Members' attention to certain risks associated with trading their vessels to Venezuela. It has become the usual practice of the Venezuelan authorities to charge the crew of a vessel on which drugs have been found with concealment and trafficking of narcotics. It appears that the most commonly used methods of secreting drugs on board vessels is by way of a diver attaching them to the vessel's hull or security gratings or placing them inside the rudder stock spaces. While the prosecutor has the theoretical burden of proving beyond reasonable doubt the involvement of the crew in the concealment or trafficking of drugs, in practice this burden has been shown to be relatively easily discharged. Prosecutions under the previous narcotics legislation have resulted in a number of cases of seafarers being convicted and sentenced to substantial prison terms of 8-9 years without any obvious link being established between the activities of the crew and the presence of the drugs on board the vessel. Vessels and their cargo have also been confiscated by the courts. In other cases crews and vessels have been released without members of the crew being prosecuted but only after sub