21 Stowaways Found In Container At Harbor Island

[spindrifter]

April 5, 2006
By Associated Press

21 Stowaways Found In Harbor Island Container

SEATTLE - Twenty-one people were being held early Wednesday after they apparently arrived in a 40-foot cargo container aboard a ship from China, officials said.

Port of Seattle security guards spotted the 17 men and four women about 1 a.m. at Terminal 18, determined that they were not crew members from the recently arrived cargo ship Rotterdam and summoned federal authorities, said Michael Milne, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection
<snip>
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 U.S. 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.

<snip>
http://www.komotv.com/stories/42771.htm

[benburch]

1. Sometimes these arrive full of death.

Most of these containers go on to their ultimate destination undetected, and I can only imagine what the smugglers do with the bodies when they get a shipment that "spoiled" in transit.

:(