And it's all due to the cookies....
Posted on 04/07/2005 1:25:15 PM PDT by wesley_windam-price
Officials say the human cargo was last docked in Hong Kong on March 22. The stowaways will face immigration hearings. By Larry Altman Daily Breeze
Twenty-nine Chinese nationals arrested in the Port of Los Angeles spent two weeks living in cramped cargo containers, eating cheap cookies, going without fresh air, and defecating in buckets as they tried to slip illegally into the United States, authorities said Monday.
Police and federal authorities took the men into custody late Sunday when they were found wandering in a cargo area near Berth 214. The smuggled men arrived in two 40-foot-long containers on the NYK Artemis, a Panamanian-registered vessel that last docked in Hong Kong on March 22.
"They seemed to be in generally good health," said a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement senior special agent on the scene. "I'm sure they were disappointed. It didn't much show. They are uncertain of what's going to happen to them."
How the human cargo entered the port without detection was under investigation. Containers entering American ports were a key topic raised during the recent presidential election about the nation's security.
The weekend's shipment of containers aboard the Artemis was listed on a manifest as holding machinery and parts, Peter Gordon, acting port director for the Los Angeles-Long Beach Sea Port, said.
"That's part of the ongoing investigation," Gordon said. "There was a product and merchandise listed in the containers that appeared to be legitimate."
Although none of the Chinese appeared injured from the conditions they endured, several suffered minor injuries when they tried to scale fences surrounding the cargo area. Seven, including one man with a broken ankle, were treated at local hospitals and returned to custody, ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice said.
The men scattered when police arrived and a couple might have eluded the authorities, the agent said.
Private port security contacted Port of Los Angeles police at 11 p.m. when they noticed the men. Police, in turn, contacted the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and representatives from the U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and ICE responded.
The NYK Artemis arrived Saturday from a journey that took on cargo in the Chinese cities of Xiamen and Shekou, and Hong Kong.
"At this point we have no indication that NYK or any members of the crew of this vessel were involved in this particular event," Gordon said.
Agents found filthy conditions in the containers.
"They are piled high with cheap cookies and foods like you might find at the 99 Cent store," said the senior agent, who asked that he not be identified. "People were eating and drinking and living right where they were doing all their elimination. The smell is pretty horrific, the smell of human excrement and especially the urine."
Sleeping bags and blankets became soggy from the condensation from the men's breathing. Sweat ran down the metal walls. Urine-filled bottles overflowed. Empty food packages piled up.
Fans connected to car batteries circulated the foul air in the windowless containers.
Smugglers typically receive $30,000 to $60,000 from Chinese migrants willing to take the journey to enter the United States, Kice said.
Each of the Chinese nationals will be interviewed in an effort to apprehend the smugglers, Kice said.
Gordon said Homeland Security measures designed to combat terrorism require shippers to notify the port in advance of what is coming into the United States.
The United States has agreements with 35 ports overseas to examine cargo set for American cities, but Gordon could not say whether authorities were fulfilling the agreement.
Hong Kong is among the ports with an agreement to inspect cargo, but the Artemis also loaded containers at two other Chinese ports before setting sail for America, he said.
With terrorism a concern, Gordon said investigators found no indication that the men smuggled into the port arrived for anything but economic reasons.
"We always are concerned anytime an attempt is made to circumvent the laws of the United States," he said. "The vast majority of people and commerce and merchandise entering the United States is legitimate."
The Chinese nationals were taken to federal detention facilities in Los Angeles, where they will be held pending immigration hearings.
In January, 32 Chinese nationals were discovered in a container.
Kice said the men are not wealthy. She said many of the migrants trying to enter the country fall into tremendous debt to the smugglers. Some might become indentured servants to pay off their fare. Women sometimes are forced into prostitution.
"(The smugglers) tell them that the streets are paved in gold," Kice said. "Most will end up in menial jobs."
Kice said the number of Chinese nationals trying to smuggle into Los Angeles ports has dropped in recent years. ICE attributed that to law enforcement efforts and expanded international cooperation.
I can smell it now.... And it's all due to the cookies....
And it's all due to the cookies....
ping
Fortune cookies no doubt
"May your bottles over fill with urine and your buckets with poo " Some China Dude !!!
Yes, Grasshopper. Very bad fortune cookies.
My only question - are they civilians?
Were they on their way to Wal-Mart?
"We always are concerned anytime an attempt is made to circumvent the laws of the United States,"
HUH! Did someone really say that? Someone from the Gubmint?
I rode a Greyhound bus in the `70s that was a lot like that.
GIVE 'EM GUEST WORKER STATUS!
The Bush administration surely knows this and underwrites it..
How do I know this as a fact.?.. They encourage it by doing little or nothing.. On purpose..
Somethings stinks in foggy bottom and its not the fog..
Modern day Mayflowers ?
The ship I mean. May be a foggy bottom too!
Nope.. Modernday Coyote Ships..
Thanks for the ping!
Congradulations to the LEOs who did a great job.
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