Yang Ming Captain Arrested on Suspicion of Drug Smuggling
An arrest warrant was issued late on January 30 in Taiwan for the captain of a Yang Ming containership on suspicion of drug smuggling. The captain, who was only identified by the surname of Yu, had been detained earlier in the week after an inspection of his vessel at the Port of Kaohsiung.
The Taiwan-based Yang Ming Marine Transport Corporation said it was cooperating with the authorities after alerting them to the suspected smuggling taking place on one of its vessels.
The YM Horizon (19,100 dwt) had loaded in Vietnam and had been scheduled to make a call in Hong Kong before proceeding to Taiwan. It is unclear why, but the vessel skipped the Hong Kong port call and went directly to Kaohsiung, where it arrived on January 29. The vessel, which was built in 2005 and registered in Taiwan, is a smaller, 1,500 TEU vessel used on the regional service in Asia.
The vessel’s security officer became suspicious after receiving a tip-off from crewmembers on the ship regarding “suspicious” items delivered and loaded onto the vessel. Yang Ming passed the information to the authorities for investigation.
Customs officers boarded the ship when it docked in Taiwan, and during the inspection, they discovered bricks of heroin inside the cargo hold. They referenced it as “a large amount” and are saying it is exceptionally high purity. They also found loose heroin wrapped in oil-paper bags as well as a suspicious white powder, reports CNA.
The master of the containership was detained for interrogation by the prosecutor’s office. They later submitted information to the district court seeking the arrest warrant. No other crewmembers have been detained.
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Yang Mng reports it provided the CCTC footage from the vessel and logs to the prosecutor. The ship departed Taiwan on Monday, February 2, bound for Hong Kong.
Officials said the case is unusual because maritime drug smuggling has mostly involved older cargo ships.