My yacht is impounded

[alansmith]

I am giggling at this story. The owner of the boat...whew...I can't possibly conceive of the idea that anyone would buy this lame a$$ story of lending your valuable boat to a mechanic. Sir, as others have said...you are on all Interpol lists of "nab this guy"....You better get someone who is very expensive and very experienced in International drug trafficing problems. You are not a suspect in this seizure ...you are the Don.

There is no way to avoid your legal nightmare. You need to put your big boy pants on and face it head on. I won't judge. But if you are the kingpen you are in seriousl legal jeopardy. The boat is gone.

[ArmyDaveNY]

I think a lot of people are being very judgemental without knowing all the facts. Yes, I agree that initially and in hindsight it seems to have been a less than good decision. Having said that, we don't know the background nor the relationship history between the OP and the mechanic. It seems that we should be keeping an open mind and not be making absolute judgements.

I am sure that there is more to this than was stated in the first post.

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by P3sailor

Say's the "420" sailor!

You do know of course that the 420 is a sailboat aside from the other meaning.

Introduction to the 420 - 420 Sailing

[jmschmidt]

Read this. The same thing may have happen if the smuggler had reached the US but your may have had a better chance with a US lawyer. Oh scratch my last, they are just as bad.

This week, we examine the government’s continued campaign of civil forfeiture and how your property is protected by law…unless Uncle Sam get ahold of it.

Your Property is Guilty Until Proven Innocent
We’ve called civil forfeiture “the beast that won’t die,” characterized it as a “war on your wealth,” and warned that cash is especially vulnerable to this despicable legal process.

Police agencies don’t need to convict you of a crime or even accuse you of one in order to snatch your home, your bank accounts, or your cash. They merely need to allege that your property is somehow involved in or facilitating a crime. We’ve compared the practice to elementary school bullies stealing a child’s lunchbox. And while advocates of civil forfeiture often claim that it’s biblically sanctioned, we’ve shown that the Bible verse that supposedly blesses the practice actually prohibits it.

And yet civil forfeiture continues, unrestrained by any semblance of due process. A case in point began on March 22, when agents from the FBI and DEA raided US Private Vaults (USPV) in Beverly Hills, searching and seizing the contents of nearly 1,000 of their clients’ safe deposit boxes. The take amounted to more than $85 million in cash and precious metals, along with other valuables worth millions more.

The seizure was blatantly illegal. Agents carried a warrant only giving them the authority to seize property belonging to the private vault itself, not its customers. The warrant was issued pursuant to an indictment issued by a federal grand jury accusing USPV of money laundering and other crimes.

“Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you…”
A few weeks ago, we released an article called, “Domestic Spying is Even Worse than We Feared.” Based on the many responses we got, it clearly struck a cord.

Because the fact is, we have no privacy. At least, those of us who have a cell phone… or live in a town or city… or use the Internet… who have a bank account… or have a car made in the past 15 or 20 years.

Basically, anyone who lives what we consider to be a modern life.

But although we are indeed “spied on” from the moment we get up to the moment we go to bed (and sometimes in between) - that doesn’t mean we can’t reclaim a measure of privacy over our lives.

In this month’s Nestmann Exchange, you’ll discover:

How to avoid being accidentally seen as a “money launderer” (if you use your bank account like millions of Americans, you’re creating a pattern that makes you look like a criminal. We’ll discuss how to stop your bank from accidentally ratting you out.)

Is your mattress spying on you? A look into the world of "surveillance capitalism”.

5 tools to protect your privacy online - from the best email programs to a much safer place to store your photos, documents and other private information online. (And yes, it’s in Switzerland.)

Join us, won’t you?

While the indictment leading to the raid didn’t allege that the company’s boxholders had committed any crimes, the Assistant US Attorney in charge of the operation stated:

The majority of the boxholders are criminals who used USPV's anonymity to rude their ill-gotten wealth ... If a deposit box holder identifies himself or herself, the Government will commence a criminal investigation into the holder, including but not limited to determining whether he or she came by the contents in his or her safe deposit box(ex) legally.

In other words, boxholders are guilty until proven innocent. And nearly four months later, the FBI hasn’t accused a single boxholder of any crime. But it’s notified them of its intention to confiscate their property through civil forfeiture without bringing any charges against them.

What’s more, some boxes’ contents have mysteriously disappeared. One 80-year-old boxholder filed a lawsuit alleging that the FBI "failed to account for or return" 40 gold coins worth an estimated $75,000. A significant chunk of her life savings is now gone.

Numerous US Private Vault customers sued the FBI to get their property back. And on June 22, in a lawsuit brought by the Institute for Justice on behalf of four boxholders, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) prohibiting the FBI from proceeding with the civil forfeiture of their property.

We sincerely hope the TRO leads to a permanent injunction against the FBI forbidding it to proceed with its manifestly unjust property seizure. But we’re not holding our breath, since policing for profit is an enormous revenue source for local, state, and federal law enforcement authorities. Indeed, the Supreme Court ruled in 1989 there is a “strong governmental interest in obtaining full recovery of [forfeitable] assets.” Despite the continuing reform efforts by organizations like the Institute for Justice, we don’t foresee the practice ending anytime soon.

Welcome to America, where your property is only safe until the government seizes it. We can’t think of a better reason to move some of it offshore, away from Uncle Sam’s rapacious grasp.

[rabbi]

Originally Posted by gibsonih

In 2020 I gave my mechanic permission to use our yacht so that he could accompany a charter fleet across the Atlantic. Or so he said.
Our yacht was boarded west of the Canaries and a large consignment of drugs were found on board.
He was arrested, and as far as we know our yacht is still impounded in the Canaries.
Quotes to engage a Spanish lawyer were about the same value as the yacht, so we didn't pursue the legal route.
No one has contacted us.
Can anyone offer advice as to how to reclaim our yacht?
Yacht is registered in Croatia. We live in South Africa.

So you lend the boat to the mechanic to sail back and forth between Europe and Caribbean as it pleases him. Yeah sure. My mechanic can also use my boat any time! not


If you want to see your yacht again:
fly to the Canary islands and immigration will take care of you. During the trials I am sure they will show you photos of your boat.

After a few years in prison I hope they will give you the bill for several years of storage plus fees for disposing the junk that once was a boat.

no sympathy.

[ArmyDaveNY]

Originally Posted by jmschmidt

Read this. The same thing may have happen if the smuggler had reached the US but your may have had a better chance with a US lawyer. Oh scratch my last, they are just as bad.

This week, we examine the government’s continued campaign of civil forfeiture and how your property is protected by law…unless Uncle Sam get ahold of it.

Your Property is Guilty Until Proven Innocent........Welcome to America, where your property is only safe until the government seizes it. We can’t think of a better reason to move some of it offshore, away from Uncle Sam’s rapacious grasp.

Excellent article. Do you have the link?

Thank you for posting this.

[Group9]

Originally Posted by ArmyDaveNY

\

I am sure that there is more to this than was stated in the first post.

Oh, to say the very least.

[ArmyDaveNY]

Originally Posted by Group9

Oh, to say the very least.

Can you believe that I have been accused of understatement?!

[CarinaPDX]

One has to wonder what the OP is up to. While there are occasionally cases where naive owners get caught up in illegal activities this doesn't appear to be one of them. The crew left Croatia at the end of February for a March-April westbound crossing - supposedly with a "charter fleet"; just about nobody crosses west at that time of year with the hurricanes coming, and not a charter fleet when the Med charter season is close to starting. The fact that the authorities had their eyes on this specific boat in February, before their departure from Croatia, is pretty damn suspicious. But then, as the authorities were doing a full court press in the Caribbean with repeated boardings and inspections they returned to the Canaries, then headed south to meet a ship and their cargo before returning north. All this over a six month period and the owner is surprised that something went amiss? And that crew are pretty stupid - they had to know the authorities were watching them so why didn't they give up and get a different boat? You don't have to be very bright to be a criminal - only to be a criminal that doesn't get caught.

Without any written evidence of an agreement (and even with) the OP is going to have a very hard time convincing anyone that this was just a friendly loan of his boat. Virtually no one does that. Just the wear and tear of two Atlantic crossings would cost thousands, and then there is the issue of insurance. If the OP is so rich that he can be so generous then losing the boat shouldn't be too painful; if losing it is painful then it is hard to believe his "generosity". In any event, considering that the authorities had already identified the boat back in February (2020) as involved in drug smuggling, the OP looks guilty as hell (whether or not he actually is). He may not be the (alleged) ringleader, but he sure does look like an investor. I agree with others: hire a good criminal lawyer and forget about the boat - they are on to him. I appreciate that claiming ignorance as a defense may be his only hope, but better to work that out through a good lawyer. And cancel any travel plans... And my apologies to the OP if he really is dumb enough to loan his boat to a drug smuggler without knowing it.

Greg

[rabbi]

Originally Posted by CarinaPDX

And my apologies to the OP if he really is dumb enough to loan his boat to a drug smuggler without knowing it.

[crayiii]

Originally Posted by gibsonih

In 2020 I gave my mechanic permission to use our yacht so that he could accompany a charter fleet across the Atlantic. Or so he said.
Our yacht was boarded west of the Canaries and a large consignment of drugs were found on board.
He was arrested, and as far as we know our yacht is still impounded in the Canaries.
Quotes to engage a Spanish lawyer were about the same value as the yacht, so we didn't pursue the legal route.
No one has contacted us.
Can anyone offer advice as to how to reclaim our yacht?
Yacht is registered in Croatia. We live in South Africa.

I imagine you are going to be arrested since "your employees" got caught.

[Kd9truck]

So you say you let your “”mechanic”” “””borrow”” your yacht for a transatlantic crossing??
So you say you did not know he would be returning with a drugs ?

Just go to the local authorities and plead your case, they will probably wave the impound fees.

[C420sailor]

Although...if you find yourself in the business of moving that much product, this is far from your first time. So you’ve likely got MORE than enough money to write off a Beneteau. So maybe this guy is in fact just an innocent pushover?

[CarinaPDX]

Originally Posted by C420sailor

Although...if you find yourself in the business of moving that much product, this is far from your first time. So you’ve likely got MORE than enough money to write off a Beneteau. So maybe this guy is in fact just an innocent pushover?

The crew seem to be part of a smuggling ring that moves a lot of weight. Which means they could have easily bought their own boat, although that might have been risky if they were known to law enforcement. So they get a boat with a clean ownership. That much makes sense. The question is why would anyone loan that valuable of a boat for half a year and two Atlantic crossings to his mechanic? Simple generosity doesn't seem adequate to explain it. OTOH the owner may not be a regular part of the smuggling ring: my bet is that there was a wink and a nod that a certain amount of money would be paid if the trip was successful, and no need to state what that meant. From what I can glean this is a pretty common gambit for drug smugglers: use people's greed to get them to help smuggle drugs, and make it look like they are not going to get pulled in if things go south. So now the owner wants his boat back and of course claims ignorance - and doesn't initially realize his personal exposure. If this is the case then the authorities might not consider him worth the effort to pursue, but aren't going to give him his boat back either. This is one of those cases where he needs to prove his innocence, and that may not be possible. After all, do you believe he was that ridiculously generous to his mechanic, or that he was expecting something under the table for loaning the boat? I would not want to go into any court with that, and especially a European court based on the Napoleonic Code.

Greg

[SVPP]

No problems, you haven’t been charged as a participant, just write a letter to the Spanish minister of police via your ZA in Spain attaché and request information on the process to get your boat back. But do it through your government so they need to respond.

Once you get a response take it from there.

Make sure you are firm, fair and friendly

If you don’t pursue it you look more suspicious.

If you get the boat back then repeat the process to request the most appropriate way to get your drugs back.

Thank me later.