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Wednesday January 5 11:48 PM ET
By Chris Stetkiewicz
SEATTLE (Reuters) - After a hunt using dogs and helicopters, immigration officers have detained 14 men and teen-age boys believed to be illegal immigrants from China after discovering them in a cargo container on a ship at the Port of Seattle, officials said Wednesday.
All but three of the suspects fled when they were discovered in the cargo container Tuesday but were rounded up by police and Coast Guard officers who searched the 160-acre (65-hectare) pier, Immigration and Nationalization Service spokeswoman Irene Mortensen said.
It was the second time in three days that alleged illegal immigrants from China were discovered in the containerized cargo of an arriving ship at the port. Similar discoveries have also been made in recent days in Los Angeles and Vancouver.
``The ship had four rag-top containers. The first three had equipment like they were supposed to. Before we were able to get into the last container, people started coming out of it,'' Mortensen said.
The 17-member crew of the Liberian-flagged Norasia Shamsha en route from Hong Kong with stops in Taiwan and Korea were also detained on board the ship. Mortensen said this was typical, since crew members often do not have U.S. visas.
Still, given the ample food and water supplies on board for the suspects, INS officials were investigating for accomplices or ringleaders among the crew. ``Somebody has to know something,'' Mortensen said.
Some of the suspect said they were from the People's Republic of China and INS officials believed the rest were also Chinese nationals, Mortensen said.
She said the defendants were probably headed for New York, where many smuggled Chinese illegals aliens go to work off debts to their smugglers, which typically amount to tens of thousands of dollars.
Three Chinese men Monday were charged with smuggling a dozen countrymen into Seattle in a cargo container Sunday.
Sunday's container was exported by Lap Kei Trading Co. of Hong Kong which also exported containers holding 25 Chinese men found on a ship in Vancouver Monday and two containers found in Los Angeles on Dec. 28 loaded with Chinese stowaways.
U.S. and Canadian officials fear smugglers switched to using containers to ship human cargo after authorities began intercepting the dilapidated fishing boats the international rings had been using to carry people across the Pacific.
``It has certainly piqued our interest as the up and coming trend,'' a Canadian customs official said Wednesday.
Hong Kong Wednesday rejected allegations the territory was a base for the trafficking in illegal Chinese immigrants, and said its customs officials were cooperating with their international counterparts.
``The Hong Kong Customs has a sound mechanism for checking cargoes to prevent smuggling of illicit cargoes,'' a government spokesman said.
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