A Philippines man has been arrested on a federal criminal complaint charging him with smuggling 227 kilograms (500 pounds) of cocaine on an oil tanker inbound from Ecuador to El Segundo, narcotics that were intended to be delivered to a Mexican drug cartel, the US justice department announced on Friday, May 22.

The 43-year-old man from the Philippines is charged with importation of a controlled substance.

According to an affidavit filed with the complaint, earlier this month, law enforcement was notified that a Greek-owned and Liberian-flagged oil tanker, whose last port of call was Ecuador, was inbound to the United States carrying kilogram quantities of drugs intended to be delivered to a Mexican cartel.

Crew members discovered numerous packages hidden inside the ship’s garbage room that contained suspected narcotics. The ship’s captain interviewed the crew and discovered that the man from Philippines possessed the drugs. The captain then secured the narcotics in a different room inside the ship.

The captain was informed that while the ship was in Mexican waters, small naval crafts with armed Mexican cartel members would be waiting 80 nautical miles from the shore on the evening of May 14 and the early morning of May 15. If the drugs were not delivered at this time, additional crafts would be waiting in Mexican waters to board the oil tanker and recover the contraband.

The captain also reported receiving what he believed were radio calls from the cartel attempting to hail the ship prior to a boarding or takeover.

U.S. law enforcement directed the ship to navigate to the combined port of Los Angeles and Long Beach, where it would board the oil tanker. As it is reported, the ship anchored in the directed area last week.

Once on board, law enforcement recovered approximately 227 kilograms of cocaine. Law enforcement learned that the man from Philippines possessed the cocaine inside the ship, had received the drugs in Ecuador, and intended to distribute them to another party while the boat was traveling past Mexico.

A complaint is merely an allegation of criminal conduct, not evidence. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

If convicted, the man would face a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in federal prison and a statutory maximum sentence of life in federal prison.

Homeland Security Investigations and the United States Coast Guard are investigating this matter.