Coast Guard Administration (CGA) patrol ships last week seized contraband cigarettes worth an estimated NT$110 million (US$3.9 million), after uncovering a smuggling operation that originated in the South China Sea, officials said yesterday.
It was the first time a cigarette-smuggling operation was discovered near the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島), coast guard officials said.
The coast guard was holding live-fire exercises on the Pratas Islands on Monday last week and Tuesday, when on Saturday last week, the CGA detected a suspicious cargo ship in the area, the officials said.
Photo copied by Hung Ting-hung, Taipei Times
After receiving a tip-off that a cargo ship registered under the flag of African nation Togo was allegedly hauling contraband cigarettes, the CGA Southern Branch’s Offshore Flotilla 5 formed a task force to intercept the ship, with the main operation mounted by the 3,000-tonne cutter CG-129 Kaohsiung, they said.
After CGA officers boarded the vessel, they found a cache of cigarettes hidden in large fabric bags.
It took several days of counting the contraband until they on Thursday finalized the haul — 1.63 million cartons of cigarettes, all counterfeits of Chinese brands, with an estimated value of NT$110 million, officials said.
The ship’s crew consisted of two Chinese and 10 Burmese.
The ship’s Burmese captain told the coast guard that they had embarked from a port in Cambodia loaded with the cigarettes, and were headed to Taiwan, officials said.
As of yesterday, the contraband cigarettes had been forwarded to the Kaohsiung City Department of Finance for assessment, the officials said.
Additional reporting by Jason Pan
DEFENDING DEMOCRACY: Taiwan shares the same values as those that fought in WWII, and nations must unite to halt the expansion of a new authoritarian bloc, Lai said The government yesterday held a commemoration ceremony for Victory in Europe (V-E) Day, joining the rest of the world for the first time to mark the anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe. Taiwan honoring V-E Day signifies “our growing connections with the international community,” President William Lai (賴清德) said at a reception in Taipei on the 80th anniversary of V-E Day. One of the major lessons of World War II is that “authoritarianism and aggression lead only to slaughter, tragedy and greater inequality,” Lai said. Even more importantly, the war also taught people that “those who cherish peace cannot
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
‘FALLACY’: Xi’s assertions that Taiwan was given to the PRC after WWII confused right and wrong, and were contrary to the facts, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday called Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) claim that China historically has sovereignty over Taiwan “deceptive” and “contrary to the facts.” In an article published on Wednesday in the Russian state-run Rossiyskaya Gazeta, Xi said that this year not only marks 80 years since the end of World War II and the founding of the UN, but also “Taiwan’s restoration to China.” “A series of instruments with legal effect under international law, including the Cairo Declaration and the Potsdam Declaration have affirmed China’s sovereignty over Taiwan,” Xi wrote. “The historical and legal fact” of these documents, as well
RSS