Israeli sailor said to be indicted in Colombia for smuggling 234 kgs of cocaine
Lawyer for Roy Erez believes the courts will conclude his client was deceived by criminals
Colombian authorities have reportedly filed an indictment against an Israeli sailor accused of drug trafficking after more than 200 kilograms of cocaine were found on board his yacht earlier this year.
According to the report from Iton Gadol, which provides Israel news in Spanish, indictments were filed against Roy Erez and Colombian national Hugo Camacho Bustamante. The two are said to be held at the San Andres prison in the north of the country.
Erez’s lawyer, Mordechai Tzibin, told the outlet that he recently visited his client and has faith in the system.
“In my experience, I have full confidence in the Colombian judicial system and the human rights situation in the prisons. My client is a positive person with values, and I believe that the court will find that he was deceived by criminal elements,” Tzibin said.
Erez, 39, was arrested in August while sailing from Panama to Jamaica as part of a trip around the world.
Erez’s sister said he told her he was forced by pirates to transport a Colombian passenger he didn’t know, adding that she suspected the passenger was a wanted criminal.
The country’s navy said 234 kilograms (515 pounds) of cocaine were found aboard the vessel, Hebrew-language media reported.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry confirmed in a statement Sunday that Erez was in San Andres and being interrogated by Colombian authorities.
“Israel’s consul in Bogota, Yuval Sharabi, spoke with him on the phone and made sure that he was okay,” the statement added.
In a Facebook post last Tuesday, Karina Erez Azoulay recounted the drama that befell her brother as he sailed from Panama during a round-the-world voyage on his sailing boat.
Azoulay has been in contact with her brother during his trip using text messages sent via a satellite phone.
Erez, she said, had been in Panama where he visited the local Chabad house and agreed to take on two Israeli passengers. After three days of sailing, he dropped the pair off in Panama and then set off alone for Jamaica.
At some point while he was out at sea, a fishing boat, apparently operated by pirates, caught up with him and forced him at gunpoint to take on a man he had never met before.
“Fearing for his life, he was forced to agree,” Azoulay wrote in the post.
Hours later the yacht was stopped while still in international waters and soldiers boarded, taking Erez and the man captive.
“They are at the moment towing the boat to Colombia with six armed soldiers on board,” she wrote at the time. “My brother is very worried by the aggression used against him and what might happen to him when he reaches Colombia. He is caught in a hopeless situation and is very worried they will involve him in a matter he has nothing to do with.”
Azoulay said she has asked the Foreign Ministry to help, and also contacted Colombian authorities.
Erez has Israeli and German citizenship. His family has also contacted the German embassy in Israel.
Last November Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Colombia, where he signed a tourism cooperation agreement at the Narino presidential palace.