The captain of the Taiwanese fishing boat Lucky and Rich (吉豐財) was sentenced on Oct. 26 at the Wenzhou Middle People's Court on charges of smuggling, together with the three members of his crew.
According to reports on the Web site of China's official Central Television Station, the captain, Tsao Mu-tu (
They went first to Pusan, Korea, where the boat was loaded with cigarettes, and then headed for China.
On June 4, the boat was apprehended when it entered Chinese territorial waters from Korea.
In addition to confiscating 84,544 cartons of cigarettes, Chinese customs officials also detained the four suspects for questioning.
Tsao was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
His three crew members, also Taiwanese, were each sentenced to six years in prison.
The four men were in addition fined a total of yuan 12,790,000 (NT$49,362,044).
The estimated value of the taxes due on the cigarettes is yuan 12,780,000.
RSS