Officials Seize Yacht After Drug Search

The seizure of a 90-foot yacht in Mission Bay after police and Coast Guard officers found 2.5 grams of cocaine, a small bag of marijuana and 10 marijuana cigarettes on board was being investigated Monday, U. S. Customs Service agents said.

The yacht was anchored half a mile offshore Sunday when the Coast Guard, working with San Diego police assigned to the Mission Bay harbor patrol, noticed that the vessel had no name, no identification numbers and no home port written on the stern, said Coast Guard petty officer Steven Dickerson.

After officers boarded the yacht about 3 p.m. and allegedly found some of the drugs in some crew members’ jackets, police and Coast Guard officers called customs’ agents with narcotics-sniffing dogs to seize the boat under the federal government’s “zero-tolerance” anti-drug policy.

Dickerson said Melvin Gorham, 58, of Las Vegas, a major stockholder of Boulder Auto Center, the company that owns the yacht, was on board with three passengers when the boat was seized.

Because it was not immediately clear who owned the drugs, no arrests were made. Gorham, however, was cited for not having correct documentation displayed on the yacht, Dickerson said. Crew members told officials that the boat’s name was being changed from Mustang X to Bermie Lou’s Califo.

A customs’ spokeswoman in Los Angeles said that she doesn’t know when the boat will be released and that the owner has 30 days to file an administrative petition to get the yacht back. It was unlikely that it would be released under “constructive seizure,” a process where the owner can retain custody and use of a seized boat, she said.