EU Critical Maritime Route Wider Indian Ocean (CRIMARIO) project organises Tuesdays Second Chance webinar series to highlight the challenges of maritime operations. This edition of Tuesday 10th May, 2022 examined the case study of the boarding of the F/V Captain Winston in 2004 to analyse the issues related to conduct of narcotics interdictions on the high seas.

Andrew Mallia, the Law Enforcement and Capacity Building Expert of the CRIMARIO project, was the session's Keynote Speaker. He served as a naval officer within the Armed Forces of Malta for 25 years. Firstly, He examined the operation facts to board the F/V Captain Winston, west of the island of Guadeloupe in the Caribbean Sea. The actions to board the vessel and the subsequent inspection revealed that the vessel was being used to traffic narcotics leading to the seizure of the vessel and the arrest of her crew. The Keynote Speaker presented the unfolding of these events and the decisions that affected the outcome. He examined the responsibilities and obligations of enforcement officers towards persons in their custody, the issue of preparing personnel to deal with detaining suspects under challenging conditions at sea, and the lessons learnt from this case study. Research Officers from BIMRAD, participated in the webinar.