Three months ago, on September 20 last year, a beautiful 17meter sailboat flying a Russian flag arrived at the Natal Yacht Club in Rio Grande do Norte.
Two men disembarked: a Russian who introduced himself as the ship's captain, and a Lithuanian crew member who prepaid for the boat's stay at the club for two months.
But then, shortly after the arrival in Natal of a young woman from Latvia who was tasked with looking after the boat during its stay at the city's yacht club, the two men took a plane and left the country.
And they never came back. And no one to take the boat away.
The only people on site were the federal police, attracted by reports that a sailing boat had been stolen off the coast of Croatia in July last year.
A strange story began that has not yet been fully solved by the Brazilian police.
What the police found out
Why this large boat, worth around 600,000 euros (more than R$ 3 million), was abandoned by suspected thieves (perhaps members of an international gang) at the Rio Grande do Norte yacht club and why it was taken to Brazil, almost 10,000 kilometers from the site of the Theft are some of the questions to which the federal police still have no answers.
But the police have already discovered many more things about this strange case.
For example, the fact that the boat arrived here with a different name and false documents, very different from those with which it left the port of Kastela in Croatia for what was supposed to be a weeklong cruise around the region, as it was a rental boat.
Rented in Croatia
The person who rented it on July 8 last year was a captain from Latvia (the same country as the woman who, not coincidentally, later came to Brazil to take care of the boat), accompanied by a Russian, this one here with a Portuguese passport.
From Kastela, the two made their way to the tourist island of Korcula off the coast of Croatia, where the sailboat, ironically named “Mischief” (“Mischief” in Portuguese), was stopped for a week.
Until after the arrival of a Brazilian woman in Korcula, accompanied by a couple also from Latvia (the presence of citizens from countries of the former Soviet Union such as Lithuania, Latvia and Russia itself is, however, no coincidence in this case (This Brazilian and such a Russian with Portuguese passport also raise suspicion), the sailboat was towed to an unknown destination.
At the same time as this was happening, the Latvian captain, who had rented the sailboat in his name (but, according to him, as a simple captain, was hired for this weeklong cruise with “clients” and who, for this very reason, had temporarily stayed in one hotel on the island of Korcula to “make the couples on board comfortable”), he reported that he had “stolen the boat” perhaps just as a pretext to free himself from direct involvement in the theft of the sailboat.
Hidden for a month
The police don't yet know in detail what happened next. However, it is certain that the boat spent about a month hidden in a corner of the Mediterranean, Aegean or Adriatic and was tampered with before being given a different name (now renamed “Albina”) and a different document (even in the Original false) resurfaced model of the boat) and a different nationality (Russian), in a marina in the city of Smir in Morocco.
From there, after a short stay, the sailboat continued towards Brazil on August 9th, but with a different crew: the Russian captain, accompanied by a crew member from Lithuania, the same people who would arrive at the Natal Yacht Club 40 days later. However, later the boat's official destination, recorded by the crew leaving the Moroccan marina, was the city of Rio de Janeiro.
Why the sailboat changed course and ended up in Rio Grande do Norte is another question to which the police still have no answer. However, it is certain that the boat arrived at the Rio de Janeiro Yacht Club without any cargo and that it would next sail to Rio de Janeiro, as the Russian captain clarified when registering the boat's arrival at the club, and also at the port authority who also failed to recognize that the document presented was incorrect, even on the original model of the boat.
The boat arrived with a different name
The sailboat in question is a Hansen Model 588, but was listed in the document provided as a “Model 575” possibly having been cloned from another boat, the original “Albina,” used by thieves was created to change the identity of the stolen ship.
This was also evident in the gross alteration made to both the engine's serial number (where one number was tampered with, but this was not enough to mischaracterize the original model as the thieves had changed the wrong digit) and at the application of the new name to the hull, where there are obvious signs that the original name has been scratched off.
“It’s the same boat,” says the delegate
The expertise of the Federal Police of Potiguar is currently working on this to prove what the delegate in charge of the case, Gilberto Pinheiro, has known for a long time: that this is the same sailboat that was stolen in Croatia. five months ago.
“There is no doubt that it is the same sailboat,” says the delegate. “But we have to prove it and also find out the thieves’ interest in bringing it to Brazil,” says the delegate.
Had he come to get drugs?
Strictly speaking, the Brazilian police are based on three hypotheses: the simple theft of a valuable boat, orchestrated by a suspected gang specializing in this type of crime; the possibility that the sailboat was only used to bring something illegal into Brazil (which would have been unloaded before the boat arrived at the Rio Grande do Norte Yacht Club); or what seems more likely that he came to collect drugs to take to Europe, which would explain the disappearance of his crew before the police arrived.
A woman on board
During the search and seizure of the sailboat by the federal police in midNovember, a young Latvian woman was found on the boat (in addition to the ship's manual with the first three pages torn out exactly those with the owner's name, another clear indication of this) (it had been stolen). at the age of 29 (as the investigation is ongoing, the police are not releasing the names of those involved), who they believe was hired by the Russian captain to look after the sailboat “for three months.”
The police also found the cell phone hidden in the boat's cabin that she used to communicate with the captain of the sailboat and which she said she had “lost” in the city.
The boat is under the care of the Navy
“We are decoding the cell phone calls and messages, but at the moment there are no formal charges against her, although her passport has been confiscated and she is forbidden to leave the country,” explains delegate Gilberto, who assumes that this had already happened elements sufficient for the court to analyze the return of the boat to its original owners in Croatia.
“They were the ones who discovered through scouts and trackers that the boat was in Brazil, as the theft of pleasure sailboats is not a common occurrence. “Another boat of this type,” explains the delegate, adding that the sailboat which remains at the Iate Clube de Natal and is now under the care of the Navy was only detained for now because it “entered national territory with ideologically wrong intentions had”. .”
“We will clear up the rest of this strange story by working with Interpol,” the delegate guarantees.
The goal was different
Of the three hypotheses put forward by the police, the simple theft of the boat to be resold in Brazil is the least likely.
“That’s not possible, because the fake would soon be noticed,” explains the delegate. “It was certainly stolen for some other purpose and we will find out once the investigation is complete, which shouldn't take long.”
Cariocas stole a sailboat
Although boat robberies are rare, they do occur sporadically. But always for a different purpose, such as temporary use for illegal activities.
In Brazil, one of the strangest cases of sailboat theft occurred 33 years ago, in May 1991, when three unemployed young people from Rio decided to steal a sailboat and travel with it to Australia to try a new life on the other side of the world because they didn't even have money for the ticket.
But because they were inexperienced and unprepared, everything went wrong, and after almost dying crossing the Atlantic, they were unable to leave South Africa, where they spent a year in prison, but for another, much more prosaic reason: the theft of foods. since they didn't even have money to eat.
The full story behind the sailboat that was stolen in Croatia and strangely taken to Brazil has yet to be revealed.
“But it will be,” guarantees delegate Gilberto Pinheiro.
report
Text reporting events based on facts and data that the journalist has directly observed or verified or obtained through access to recognized and reliable journalistic sources.
Source: UOL.