BOGOTA, Colombia
Colombian authorities on Tuesday uncovered large amounts of armaments destined for Cuba in a ship detained since Sunday in Cartagena.
Luis Gonzalez, director of the Colombian attorney general’s office, confirmed that captain Hu Wong, of the Dan Dan Xia, had been detained.
He will appear before a court, charged with the illegal transportation of 2 million detonators, 3,000 artillery shells, 99 missiles and 100 tons of gunpowder.
The material in question was hidden in bags of grain in 14 of the ship’s containers.
The ship’s paperwork showed that the boat’s final destination was Cuba and it was supposedly carrying pipes for use in the construction of a refinery.
While neither Col. Carlos Rodríguez, commander in chief of Cartagena’s police, nor Defense Minister Juan Carlos Pinzon have yet commented on the issue, speculation surrounds the Chinese vessel.
In 2013, a similar Chinese boat was detained in Panama while attempting to smuggle undeclared weaponry bound for Cuba.
Security has been increased in recent days in Cartagena as Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and other top officials will be in the city to attend a convention from March 6 to 8 hosted by the International Institute of Strategic Studies.
There is neither confirmation nor denial that the arms on the Dan Dan Xia could have been meant for one of Colombia’s two main guerrilla groups – the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as the FARC, or the National Liberation Army.
The FARC declared a unilateral cease-fire in December and have been involved in peace talks with the Colombian government since November 2012.
