Chaguaramas: Coast Guard officials have impounded eight vessels believed to be involved in a deisel smuggling racket and have already fined the owners of five of them.
The Energy Ministry issued a statement this morning saying that the crackdown was part of its ongoing monitoring of vessels since the scandal broke last year.
The Ministry says it was done with the help of the Customs and Excise Division, Maritime Services, Fisheries and Land and Marine Resources.
The Ministry says the eight impounded vessels were inspected for infractions of the law and that offences were detected in five of the eight vessels with the appropriate penalties imposed.
The statement says that Maritime Services Divisions inspected three vessels which fell under its jurisdiction and found structural modifications which the owners were ordered to convert to their original specifications.
The Ministry says that To date, two of the vessels’ owners have complied and one is in the process of doing so.
The Fisheries Division inspected six of the vessels that fell within its jurisdiction, which had been approved for fishing, and found a number of structural modifications.
The statement says that as such, they too will be taking appropriate action.
The fuel racket was first discovered during a raid in the Beetham where large storage tanks were discovered and subsequent to that police discovered thousands of gallons of deisel in a wrecked vessel at Sealots with several containers of deisel on the shore.
The Coast Guard has found that vessels that have been retrofitted with equipment for pumping fuel to boats while at sea.
The Ministry says its efforts have yeilded positive results as Petrotrin has advised that the sale of subsidized diesel fell by 15 per cent over the period September to November 2011 and has resulted in a savings of over $90 million in subsidies.
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