Two Men Arrested in Drug Bust Boarding Atlantis Cruise in Miami

Two Washington D.C. men, one of whom was reported to be a government contractor, were arrested by Homeland Security agents on Sunday as they boarded a gay cruise with the intent to distribute illegal drugs.

“Peter Melendez, 35, was arrested and charged with conspiracy to traffic in illegal drugs and trafficking in illegal drugs. And Robert Koehler, 27, was charged with trafficking illegal drugs,” according to the Miami Herald.

Miami’s Local10 reports: ‘According to an arrest report, a Homeland Security special agent intercepted emails from Peter Melendez, 35, who is a government contractor, and Robert Koehler, 27, discussing their strategy to smuggle the drugs onto the ship and distribute the drugs to people once they were on board. Police said the emails were intercepted through Melendez’s government-issued computer.”

“After the men were spotted, a K-9 by the name of Bill alerted police to the drugs the men were carrying. Police confiscated 27 grams of MDMA, more commonly referred to as Ecstacy, 18 grams of Ketamine and 246 grams of GHB, which is often referred to as a date-rape drug,” the Miami Herald adds.

The cruise, reported by several outlets to be Royal Caribbean’s Allure of the Seas, chartered by Atlantis Events is currently underway, billed as “the world’s largest all-gay cruise,” making stops in Mexico and Honduras.

Atlantis Events, which operates gay cruises around the world, came under scrutiny last year after Joel Taylor, who starred in the Discovery show Storm Chasers, died on a cruise in the Caribbean after taking a cocktail of drugs which was later determined to be “a drug cocktail of ‘tricyclic antidepressants,’ MDMA, Ketamine and Zolpidem (commonly branded as Ambien). MDA (aka Sally), an amphetamine.”