The Billion Dollar Bust: An Historic Seizure of One Billion Dollars in Cocaine Aboard a Ship in the Port of Philadelphia

By Paul Davis

In September 10, 2020 Aleksandar Kavaja pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine on a ship subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. Previously, Vladimir Penda also entered a plea of guilty to the same charges. Both Kavaja and Penda are citizens of the Balkan country Montenegro.

The two sailors were crew members of the MSC Gayane. In the Port of Philadelphia on June 17, 2019 federal, state, and local law enforcement agents discovered approximately 20 tons of cocaine on the commercial ship. The cocaine has an estimated street value of $1.3 billion.

This was one of the largest drug seizures in U.S. history.

The U. S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, William M. McSwain, announced Kavaja’s guilty plea on September 10th. According to McSwain, Kavaja, the ship’s electrician, conspired with others to engage in bulk cocaine smuggling. He said that on multiple occasions during the ship’s voyage at sea, Kavaja and other crew members helped load huge quantities of cocaine onto the ship from speedboats that approached under cover of darkness and traveling at high speeds. Crew members used the Gayane’s crane to hoist cargo nets full of packaged cocaine onto the vessel and then hid the drugs in various shipping containers.

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania issued a seize warrant for the ship and on July 4th, CBP executed the warrant a...