Three crew members — two South Korean nationals and one Filipino — have been detained in Turkey on drug charges after authorities discovered 13 kilogrammes of cocaine aboard their vessel. The case has reignited concerns within the maritime sector over the criminalisation of seafarers caught up in smuggling investigations.
The men — Captain Sang Yeong Jeong, 65, Chief Officer Jin Ho Hwang, 47, and Bosun Allan Labnao Salcedo, 45 — were taken into custody on 30 July after Turkish police boarded the Grandis, a 62,500 dwt bulk carrier owned and operated by South Korea’s Pan Ocean.
The International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) confirmed the arrests but said information about the seafarers’ whereabouts remains unclear.
“We are not certain where the crew are being held. Based on past cases, it could be either a prison or a police station. We are awaiting updates from the P&I Club’s legal team,” said ITF seafarers’ section coordinator Fabrizio Barcellona.
Union representatives in Turkey reported that the case remains under the prosecutor’s investigation, meaning a confidentiality order has restricted access to case details.
The development comes as families of other detained seafarers continue their campaigns for justice. Elena Albokhari, the wife of long-term detainee Ally Albokhari, travelled to London last week for meetings with the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the ITF.
Her husband, sentenced earlier this year to 30 years in prison for “negligence” after drugs were discovered on the Turkish-owned Phoenician M., has now been held for over two years.
Speaking about the strain on families, Elena — a Russian national living in Finland — urged maritime organisations to do more.
“All organisations should have closer contact with families. Perhaps a committee could be set up to support them. It has taken me two years to learn what to do and to raise money just to visit my husband,” she said.
She added that Turkish authorities had cited her husband’s “allergies” but she remained convinced he suffers from a more serious health condition.
Her comments followed the sudden release in August of Croatian captain Marko Bekevac, who had been sentenced alongside her husband to 30 years’ imprisonment.
His release came unexpectedly, ahead of a Turkish Supreme Court ruling that could yet overturn both men’s convictions.
Sources have suggested that Bekevac’s release may have been linked to a prisoner exchange between Ankara and Zagreb, involving a Turkish drug trafficker detained in Croatia.
The ITF and other maritime groups have repeatedly warned that seafarers risk becoming scapegoats in cases where drugs are smuggled aboard ships without their knowledge, and have urged governments to ensure crew are treated fairly during investigations.
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