Twenty-one Chinese were being held early on Wednesday after they apparently arrived in a 12m cargo container aboard a ship from China, officials said.
Port of Seattle security guards spotted the 17 men and four women about 1am at a port terminal, determined that they were not members of the crew from the recently arrived container ship Rotterdam and summoned federal authorities, said Michael Milne, a spokesman for US Customs and Border Protection.
All of the stowaways appeared to be Chinese nationals in their 20s and 30s and in good physical condition after about 15 days in the container that was loaded onto the ship in Shanghai, Milne said.
None appeared to be in control or directing the others, nor was there evidence of "any real criminal or terrorist activity ... just an alien smuggling operation," Milne said.
They were being interviewed with the aid of a translator pending detention, further investigation and likely deportation proceedings, he said.
Flagged
The container, the second from the ground in a stack of four, had been flagged for a special examination which had not been conducted before the group was caught, Milne said. He would not reveal why it had been flagged but said it was equipped with water bottles, food, blankets and toilet facilities.
It was apparently the first detection of a human smuggling attempt using a cargo container in Seattle since a flurry along the US and Canadian West Coast in 2000 and 2001. Almost all of those caught were deported, but three of 18 in a shipping container aboard the NYK Cape May died before reaching Seattle in January 2000.
The Rotterdam docked at about 9am on Tuesday morning and was carrying general cargo. After Shanghai, the ship made three stops at other Asian ports -- Milne said he did not know which ones -- and then at Pusan, South Korea, before heading for Seattle.
Pried open
Early on Wednesday the group apparently pried open the container, lowered themselves about 2m to the ground and tried to slip out of the secured terminal area, he said.
About half were discovered by a guard "on a routine security patrol" within the terminal and the other half were spotted trying to get out through a gate, Milne said.
Once they were intercepted, "there was no attempt by any of them to flee or hide," he said. "They were cooperative."
Port and city police as well as federal authorities established a cordon, checked cars leaving Harbor Island and are confident no one who might have been in the container escaped detection, Milne said.
A US YouTuber who caused outrage for filming himself kissing a statue commemorating Korean wartime sex slaves has been sentenced to six months in prison, a court in Seoul said yesterday. Johnny Somali, 25, gained notoriety several years ago for recording himself doing a series of provocative stunts in South Korea and Japan, and streaming them on platforms such as YouTube and Twitch. South Korean authorities indicted Somali — whose real name is Ramsey Khalid Ismael — in 2024 on public order violations and obstruction of business, and banned him from leaving the country. “The court has sentenced him to six months in
Former Lima mayor Rafael Lopez Aliaga, a Peruvian presidential hopeful, gathered hundreds of supporters in Lima on Tuesday and gave authorities 24 hours to annul the first round of the country’s election over allegations of fraud. Lopez Aliaga is locked in a tight three-way race with two other candidates for second place in Sunday’s vote. The election runner-up wins a ticket to June’s presidential run-off against front-runner Keiko Fujimori. “I am giving them 24 hours to declare this electoral fraud null and void,” said Lopez Aliaga, surrounded by a crowd of several hundred supporters. “If it is not declared null and void tomorrow,
PAPAL RETORT: Pope Leo told reporters that he has ‘no fear, neither of the Trump administration nor speaking out loudly about the message of the Gospel’ US President Donald Trump has feuded with Pope Leo XIV over the Iran conflict — setting off an unholy row that could have serious political implications for the Republican leader back in the US. Trump has drawn barbs even from some allies over the attacks on the US-born pontiff, who has criticized the Trump administration over its immigration crackdown, the intervention in Venezuela and the Iran war. The president risks alienating the religious right in November’s crucial US midterm elections. So far the unprecedented clash between the leader of the most powerful military on Earth and the head of the world’s 1.4 billion
A 16-year-old boy has been charged with murder and aggravated sexual abuse in Florida in the death of his 18-year-old stepsister on a Carnival Cruise ship, the US Department of Justice said on Monday. Timothy Hudson was initially charged in February and subsequently indicted on March 10, but the breadth of the case was not known until a seal was lifted on Friday last week, weeks after US District Judge Beth Bloom in Miami said that he would be prosecuted as an adult at the request of the government. Anna Kepner had been traveling on the Carnival Horizon ship in November last
RSS