TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The captain of a ship operated by Taiwan’s Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp. has been detained as a suspect in a heroin smuggling case, reports said Saturday.
Customs found 15 kilograms of the drug when they boarded the YM Horizon late Thursday in Kaohsiung Port, the Liberty Times reported. The market value of the seizure was estimated at just under NT$100 million (US$3 million).
The ship’s captain, surnamed Yu (尤), is the prime suspect. When the ship was to leave Kaohsiung for Taichung, the court approved the captain’s detention Friday evening.
After the YM Horizon left the Vietnamese port of Haiphong on Jan. 25, it dropped Hong Kong from its itinerary, sailing straight to Kaohsiung. Customs inspectors said they were surprised by the amount and the purity of the heroin they found on board.
Yu had only been in charge of the ship for 14 days but had already made contact with Southeast Asian drug cartels, according to investigators. He reportedly changed the ship’s itinerary to lower the risk of discovery.
Yang Ming Marine said members of the crew had reported the case, allowing it to alert the Coast Guard Administration and the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau, per CNA.
As its ships were equipped with high-definition surveillance cameras, the company said it had handed footage to investigators. Yu was the only crew member to have been detained, Yang Ming Marine said.
