Sailor to be paid $2m for delivering drugs, court hears
A Latvian sailor on trial over a $48 million cocaine haul told police he was to be paid $2 million to deliver it from Trinidad to Europe, a jury heard.Police and customs officers raided Janis Zegelis’s yacht, the Arturs, on August 1 last year when it was moored in St George’s. They found the drugs along with a Beretta semi-automatic pistol and 192 rounds of ammunition.Supreme Court has heard how Mr Zegelis told a customs official he did not plan to stop in Bermuda, but ran into bad weather on his voyage and had to stop for repairs to his yacht.Yesterday, the jury heard from Detective Sergeant David Bagwan who arrested the sailor after the cocaine was discovered on the vessel.Det Sgt Bagwan said he sat in the back of a police car with Mr Zegelis as he was being transported to Hamilton Police Station and the search of the yacht continued.“In the police car he made a voluntary statement that when he departed Trinidad waters he gave his co-ordinates to the intended recipients of the cocaine and some men met him at the high seas and gave him the cocaine,” said the detective.He explained that Mr Zegelis had already been given a legal caution after his arrest that he did not have to say anything. At this point, the detective said, he delivered that caution again.“He continued to speak. The defendant stated that he was to be paid $2 million to deliver the drugs,” he told the jury.“The defendant also stated that upon his approach to the Denmark Channel, he would give his co-ordinates again to the intended recipients of the cocaine who would arrange a meeting point and take over the vessel.”Det Sgt Bagwan added that during the journey, he received a phone call from a police colleague informing him that a quantity of ammunition was found on board the yacht.He said that as a result, he delivered a legal caution again to Mr Zegelis before asking him if there were any firearms on board.“He replied ‘yes, I have a 9mm Beretta pistol inside a bag around the area where the packages are’,” said the detective, who relayed that information back to his colleague.The trial has heard officers found a gun matching that description near the drugs along with two extended magazines that gave the weapon extra firepower.Asked by prosecutor Cindy Clarke what Mr Zegelis’s demeanour was like during the ride in the police car, the detective replied: “He was very calm and relaxed.”Defence lawyer Mark Pettingill challenged Det Sgt Bagwan’s version of what happened in the police car when he cross-examined him.“Mr Zegelis told you he did not know about the drugs on the boat. He did not know how they got on the boat,” suggested Mr Pettingill.“That’s not correct,” replied the detective.Mr Pettingill went on to suggest that, rather than Mr Zegelis initiating a conversation, the detective started questioning him in the car.“I’m going to suggest that it beggars belief that with a drug bust of this magnitude you would not start to ask some questions,” said the lawyer.Det Sgt Bagwan insisted that the accused man initiated the conversation and the only question he asked of him in the police car was whether there were any firearms on the yacht.Mr Zegelis, who turns 29 years old today, denies possessing and importing the gun, drugs and bullets, and the case continues.
Sailor Janis Zegelis spent two years visiting South America and the Caribbean before his arrest in Bermuda on cocaine-importation charges.He is alleged by prosecutors to have picked up $48 million worth of the drugs near Trinidad and been on his way home to Latvia when he was busted in Bermuda on August 1 2011.Yesterday, prosecutor Cindy Clarke handed the jury in his trial photocopies of his passport, showing how he racked up dozens of entry and exit stamps between June 2009 and June 2011.According to the stamps, the accused man paid eight visits to the Dominican Republic, three to St Maarten, three to Trinidad and two to Venezuela. He also visited St Lucia once and Grenada once. Mr Zegelis's passport showed he departed Trinidad on June 23 2011, and the jury has heard he arrived in Bermuda on July 21.Detective Sergeant David Bagwan told the jury yesterday that Mr Zegelis admitted having the cocaine delivered to him on the high seas off of Trinidad. He was set to deliver it to the intended recipients after entering the Denmark Channel which is en route to Latvia in northern Europe [see main story].Sgt Bagwan, of the drugs and intelligence unit was quizzed by Ms Clarke about how drugs are transported around the world.He explained that on a clear day in Trinidad you can see Venezuela. He told how drugs from Columbia are smuggled across the border into Venezuela and then transported to Europe via transition points in the Caribbean including Trinidad.He told the jury that in Venezuela, cocaine is worth less than $2,000 per kilogram. The jury has heard from prosecutor Rory Field that if the 166 kilograms of cocaine in the Zegelis case were sold on the streets of Bermuda, they would been worth in the region of $48 million.Mr Zegelis denies charges of importing and possessing the cocaine together with a gun and bullets also found on the yacht, and the case continues.
