NEWPORT BEACH : Yacht Was Trashed But Clean of Drugs

No evidence of drugs was found aboard an 87-foot motor yacht from Newport Beach that was seized over the weekend by Mexican agents who destroyed the vessel’s interior during a two-day hunt for narcotics, U.S. Customs Service officials said Thursday.

In a thorough search, Customs agents and Coast Guard officers combed the Rusalka for almost four hours after the craft’s arrival in Key West, Fla. They also questioned the skipper, Robert Ambrosius, 27, of Orange, and his wife, Tammy, 21.

The owners of the yacht say the vessel was boarded by more than 30 Mexican agents after it anchored Saturday in waters near the island port of Cozumel, a popular resort on the Yucatan Peninsula.

According to accounts of the incident, Mexican authorities said they suspected that drugs were aboard the Rusalka and proceeded to destroy the interior of the yacht with sledgehammers and crowbars. Silk upholstery, hand-woven carpets, teak bulkheads and marble fixtures were ruined in the search.

No drugs were found by Mexican police, the owners said, but two crewmen were arrested and removed from the Rusalka before the skipper and his wife could raise anchor and flee to Key West.

“The U.S. Coast Guard and Customs did an extensive and thorough search of the boat and found nothing,” said Michael Sheehan, a Customs Service spokesman. “Everything seems legit.”

Igor Olenicoff, an Irvine developer who bought the boat three years ago for pleasure, has requested that the U.S. Department of State protest the seizure. He also is considering a federal lawsuit against Mexican authorities, alleging that the search was an act of terrorism.

Olenicoff said Thursday that the two crewmen, Polo Herrera of Panama and Giraldo Tovar de Jesus of Colombia, remained jailed in Cozumel. According to Ambrosius, both men were beaten by Mexican agents.