Reprinted from Caribbean Net News
caribbeannetnews.com
ST. CROIX, USVI: A St. Croix jury convicted a Bulgarian boat captain on Friday on charges he was smuggling cocaine in international waters.
Todor Yordanov Dragn, captain of the sailboat called the Sunrise, had his vessel boarded by the Coast Guard 90 miles north of Venezuela on March 17. The boat was found to have 458 pounds of cocaine wrapped up and hidden in compartments.
The Coast Guard towed the boat to St. Croix, which is the closest island governed under the U.S. flag.
Vasil Ivanov, Desislave Kaladzhieva and Georgi Kostov were also passengers on the sailboat. However, the jury did not find sufficient evidence to link them to the drugs.
Dragn told the Coast Guard he bought the sailboat in Venezuela and was sailing it back to Europe. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison. The U.S. District Court in St. Croix will set sentencing at a later date.
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