A Crew Member was captured at Atlanta Amtrak Train station by Federal agents after deserting cruise ship. Gentian Kurdina, age 21 from Albania who was working as Aquatic Attendant on Carnival Triumph has deserted the cruise ship while it was docked in New Orleans.

Seven crew members were arrested in the port of Miami for smuggling cocaine reports Cruise Law News. The drug bust happened last week while the cruise ship MSC Seaside was in the port says Jim Walker, who was contacted by a crew member wishing to remain anonymous.

A big raid on the cruise ship MSC Seaside has left many crew members traumatized after they were held at a gunpoint and interrogated. Some crew members were handcuffed by Law-enforcement officers, says one crew member. The Authorities conducted the raid in the early morning hours on November 24th shortly after MSC Seaside docked in the Port Miami. Crew members say that Law-enforcement officers searched crew cabins and left them looking like hell and that the crew were taken ashore for interrogation.

Following November 17, drug bust in Port Miami when seven MSC Seaside crew members were arrested for smuggling cocaine, Law-enforcement officers boarded the Seaside for the second time on November 24th. During the raids many crew members were traumatized after they were interrogated by Customs and Border Protection officers, and some fired from the company.

Customs and Border Protection officials arrested a former Carnival Cruise Line crew member after he allegedly tried to smuggle himself out of the United States.

Due to the increased number of crew members who joined cruise lines with the intent of jumping ship and stay in the USA illegally, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) imposed new restrictions. The new temporary restrictions regarding shore leave in the ports in New York (Brooklyn and Manhattan) and New Jersey (Cape Liberty) states that only crew members with completed five contracts can go ashore. This is industry-wide and affects all cruise ships entering these ports.

Following the news of CBP temporary rules and restriction regarding crew shore leave in New York and New Jersey after seven crewmembers deserted, it seems like Boston and Newport has also imposed restrictions for cruise ship crew.

Today December 27, the cruise ship Spirit of Discovery operated by Saga Cruises arrived in New York with around 530 crew members and 1000 passengers onboard. The ship will be docked in New York for two days and the majority of the crew will have to stay onboard because they are not allowed to go ashore due to new restrictions.

Crew Center received a large number of emails from crew members related to the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) restrictions that brought about uproar by the crew in several US ports in October 2019. The concerns related to the restriction came in especially from crew members aboard cruise ships that only dock in US ports.

In a recent enforcement operation conducted by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), a crew member who deserted the cruise ship Viking Octantis was apprehended. The crew member disembarked the vessel at the port of Detroit on May 1, 2023, for a shore visit but failed to return, without authorization from CBP or the knowledge of the cruise line.