CROATIAN POLICE ON CATCHING OF ITALIAN SMUGGLING SPEEDBOAT

DUBROVNIK, Jan 29 (Hina) - Croatian border police on Saturday arrested an Italian speedboat smuggling cigarettes between Montenegro and Italy. The Dubrovnik-Neretva police officers today held a press conference about this event. The superintendent of the border coastal and airport police, Zeljan Matic, told journalists that the Italian smuggling speedboat had left Boka Kotorska (Montenegrin coast) toward Italy at about 01:30 p.m. Saturday, and was sailing on course of 243 from Ostro Cape toward the open sea, in the territorial waters of the Republic of Croatia. It had no ship's papers. When the Italian speedboat was spotted in the Croatian territorial waters moving toward the international waters, Croatia's two police coasting vessels (of Dubrovnik-Neretva County police) started sailing in its direction. The Croatian police aboard the two vessels tried to halt the speedboat by shooting flares. But, it did not stop, so that a commander of one police vessel ordered to shoot into the air from machine-guns. The shooting into the air, as an act of warning, brought no results, Matic said. After that the chasing continued in the international waters in line with international and Croatian legal regulations. According to the issued order, policemen shot at the stern and bow of the smuggling speedboat, and then it stopped. The speedboat's crew included four members: the commander, Domenico Trapanese (born in 1942, Naples), Giovanni Grieco (b.1973, Naples), Donato Cofono (b. 1964, Naples) and Gennaro Cuorvo (b. 1957, Naples). In pursuit of the speedboat Gennaro Cuorvo was killed, and his death was confirmed by a doctor when the speedboat was escorted in the port of Molnat. The Dubrovnik-Neretva's Police Deputy Superintendent, Miljenko Lucin told the press conference that this was the biggest caught Italian smuggling speedboat long 16 metres and with three turbo- diesel engines. The speedboat was loaded with 392 large boxes of "Marlboro" and "Merit" brand cigarettes. Lucin added that the criminal procedure had been undertaken against the speedboat's commander on the grounds of the law on enforcing the UN Security Council-imposed sanctions against the so- called Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia/Montenegro) and another criminal procedure was to be carried out on the grounds of Croatian tariff laws. The three members of the crew were now being interrogated by an investigating judge. Lucin added that the Dubrovnik-Neretva police officers had caught 13 smuggling speedboats in Croatian territorial waters since March 1993. According to statistics, last year 1260 motorboats had left Montenegro for Italy achieving trade worth between 100 and 150 million German marks. (hina) mms 291348 MET jan 95