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Coast Guard and Japanese officials to fight smuggling

The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) is collaborating with Japanese law enforcement authorities to fight smuggling, CGA Minister Wang Jinn-wang (王進旺) said.

Wang said the CGA is now focusing on the smuggling of eel fry which is expected to reach a peak in the lead-up to its high season from the end of this month to February.

The CGA and the Maritime Safety Agency of Japan (MSAJ) are stepping up joint efforts to stop the smuggling.

SHORTAGES

Wang said that because of acute shortages of eel fry in China due to overfishing and poaching, fry smuggled from Japan is in especially high demand in Taiwan's aquaculture industry, prompting the CGA to apply stricter measures to deter smuggling.

He said that the collaboration is an additional measure to the "An Kong" operation, a campaign to crack down on the smuggling of farm produce and fishery products launched on Nov. 1 last year by the CGA and 10 other agencies, including the Ministry of the Interior.

COOPERATION

The CGA has always maintained close cooperation with the MSAJ in exchanging information, Wang said.

Wang cited a successful raid in April in which a Taiwanese fishing boat was detained by the MSAJ on suspicion that it was smuggling eel fry in waters off Ishigaki Island in Japan's Okinawa Prefecture.

The two agencies also apprehended a Taiwanese fishing boat allegedly carrying amphetamines near Miyako Island in Okinawa, Wang said.

Under the same cooperation, authorities in Myanmar and Malaysia also seized a large haul of drugs in two cases, he said.

The CGA is also working with authorities in the US, Thailand and Hong Kong to control the growing problem of drug trafficking and drug-related crime and strengthen information exchange and cooperation, he said.
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