CGA seizes smuggled cigarettes

Thirteen shipping containers of smuggled cigarettes were intercepted on Tuesday at the Port of Taichung, the Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) Investigation Branch announced yesterday, adding that the seizure’s potential market value of NT$500 million (US$16.94 million) could be a record.

The branch’s Fongshan team on Tuesday confiscated the containers from the Da Dong cargo ship, registered to the Republic of Sierra Leone and piloted by a Taiwanese captain surnamed Wang . The ship had a crew of 12 Indonesians and 12 Chinese, as well as a Taiwanese chief engineer surnamed Kuo .

The 13 containers, each 40ft long, contained more than 11,000 bales of cigarettes — with each bale expected to hold 500 packs — including Chinese brands Zhonghwa and Double Happiness, and South Korean brand Esse, the branch said.
A source said that eight of the Indonesian crew members had wanted to leave the ship upon discovering that it was a smuggler, but Wang had refused to let them go and refused to pay them two months’ wages.

On Sunday, one of the Indonesian crew members called a priest in Kaohsiung, as the Da Dong was nearing the Port of Taichung, the source said, adding that the priest called a member of the Church in Taichung and asked them to inform the CGA’s central Taiwan branch.

https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2020/08/27/2003742354