Colombia arrests captain of arms-trafficking ship bound for Cuba

Colombia arrests captain of arms-trafficking ship bound for Cuba
Authorities find 100 tonnes of gunpowder and 3,000 artillery shells amid
cargo
Documentation for Hong Kong-flagged ship made no mention of ammunition
Sibylla Brodzinsky in Bogotá
Wednesday 4 March 2015 07.59 GMT

The captain of a Hong Kong-flagged cargo ship has been arrested in the
Colombian port city of Cartagena, charged with arms trafficking for
transporting undocumented large-caliber munitions, reportedly bound for
Cuba.

The captain of the Da Dan Xia, a Chinese national identified as Wu Hong,
was captured after authorities found 100 tonnes of gunpowder and 3,000
artillery shells among other munitions, an official from the Attorney
General's office told reporters.

The vessel was stopped on Saturday after authorities discovered the
unregistered materials in eight shipping containers during inspection.

"Around 100 tonnes of gunpowder, 2.6m detonators, 99 projectiles and
around 3,000 cannon shells were found," the national director of the
attorney general's office, Luis González, said.

The documentation presented by the ship's crew made no mention of the
ammunition on board and instead listed the contents as chemicals and
spare parts. "The documentation that the captain had in regards to the
merchandise that was being transported in the China-flagged vessel did
not correspond to what we found," González said.

China's foreign ministry said on Wednesday that the ship had been
involved in "normal trade co-operation". Hua Chunying said the ship was
carrying ordinary military supplies to Cuba and was not in violation of
any international obligations.

After stopping in Cartagena the vessel was bound for another Colombia
port, Barranquilla, and then to Havana, Cuba.

Photos of the crates containing the gunpowder, published by the
Cartagena newspaper El Universal, showed they were destined for a
company called TecnoImport in Cuba, which according to several blogs is
a procurement branch of the Cuban armed forces.

The company officially lists itself as an importer of machinery and
industrial products. The supplier is listed on the crates as Norico, a
Chinese manufacturer of machinery and chemical products, as well
high-tech defense products.

Cuba is currently pushing the US to remove it from a list of state
sponsors of terrorism, amid talks between the two countries aimed at
normalising diplomatic relations.

The US first included Cuba on the list in 1982, accusing the communist
government of sheltering members of militants including members of the
Basque separatist group Eta and leftwing Colombian rebels.

For the past two years, Cuba has been the site of two-year-old peace
talks between the Colombian government and leftist Farc rebels. However,
there was no indication that the weapons were at all related to the
Colombian guerrilla forces.

Although some news reports said the Da Dan Xia had sailed from
Cartagena, the cargo-ship tracking website MarineTraffic.com located the
vessel still docked at the port on Tuesday.

The ship captain was to appear before a judge in Cartagena late Wednesday.

In July 2013, a North Korean ship was seized in Panama after leaving
Cuba with Soviet-era weapons and fighter jets hidden under sacks of sugar.

Source: Colombia arrests captain of arms-trafficking ship bound for Cuba
| World news | The Guardian -
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/03/colombia-arrests-ship-captain-ammunition-cuba