A ship that was the target of a major police raid just after it docked last Thursday has sailed on, with police reporting nothing seized from on board.

The MV Suhar, able to carry up to 12,000 tonnes of cement, had pulled up at Freeport Drive off the South Basin in Dockyard to deliver a load to the Maxcem Bermuda plant.

Shortly before 11am, a substantial contingent of police backed by the Bermuda Coastguard, the Royal Bermuda Regiment and the Customs Department, boarded the vessel with detection dogs.

Coastguard divers also went overboard, apparently inspecting the ship’s hull.

Two coastguard vessels came alongside the Suhar soon after the ship moored up.

A police spokesman said last night: “The search of the vessel concluded with nothing liable for seizure found.

“No further information will be provided at this time.”

Chris Shanks, manager of Maxcem, confirmed that the Panamanian-registered carrier, which came to Bermuda from Mexico, had set off from the island yesterday morning.

Mr Shanks said the raid had no effect on business at Maxcem, which maintains giant twin silos that at present hold a three to four months’ supply of cement.

Police were busy on board the vessel until last Thursday evening, with Maxcem staff getting the go-ahead to start unloading a delivery of about 3,000 tonnes of cement that night.

Other than the minor delay in collecting the cement while the search of the vessel was carried out, Mr Shanks said there had been “nothing out of the ordinary for us — they did a search, and I don’t know what came of it”.

He said the Suhar was typically scheduled to call on Bermuda when Maxcem got down to a month’s to two-month supply of cement.

Mr Shanks said Maxcem’s staff had completed unloading the Bermuda consignment on Sunday morning.

He added: “They came and checked again on Sunday when they checked the cargo hold.

“Everything for us was completely routine, except for the initial delay in unloading.”