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| Caribbean-Latin America | |
| Weapons found on ship sailing out of Haifa to Nicaragua | |
| 2007-07-05 | |
Spanish customs officers uncovered more than 1,000 weapons on ship en route from Israel to Nicaragua during a standard cargo inspection on Tuesday, the governor of the southern Andalusia region announced Wednesday.  According to a report in AFP, Governor Juan Jose Lopez Garzon said officers in the Algesiras port confiscated 400 handguns and 300 rifles from a container on the Maersk Detroit. There were also 500 air guns, the only weapons declared on the manifest. The firearms were detected by a new US-funded scanner whose use is obligatory on all ships bound for the United States.
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| Posted by:Fred |
| #9 Mebbe the newer kinder, gentler Hamas will use the airsoft guns for gun sex at Wedding, Anniversary, and Birthday celebrations? Mebbe? |
| Posted by: borgboy2001 2007-07-05 13:43 |
| #8 I understand that some countries, like Mexico, which are very restrictive on gun ownership, do freely allow ownership of air rifles. The 500 air rifles may have been a red herring for an arms shipment to one of those countries. Maybe the leftists in Mexico are really pissed about loosing the election. |
| Posted by: usmc6743 2007-07-05 13:33 |
| #7 call me paranoid, but perhaps this was a decoy, in that it was meant to be discovered and deflect attention from potentially higher value shipments. while the customs boys were dancing in the street congratulating themselves, did soemthing else slip by? like an earlier post, too many unanswered Q's here.... |
| Posted by: USN, Ret. 2007-07-05 12:28 |
| #6 Considering that each container is numbered, it would be possible to track the load by going through the cargo lists and following the load to its destination. However, in this case I suspect the authorities wanted a publicize a high-profile bust. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2007-07-05 10:06 |
| #5 Well, sounds like something fishy is going on here. Interesting way to obscure the trail of who did what. My reaction here would be to act like nothing happened, remove the guns when noone was looking, and replace it with a GPS tracker and put hidden cameras in the container. Or something like that. You'd think you'd zero in on someone that way, then you can pull on the string and see what comes up. |
| Posted by: gorb 2007-07-05 08:40 |
| #4 Thanks Pappy, I hadn't realized cargo ships would sail a 'route' like this, but it makes sense. Rantburg U shines again! |
| Posted by: Steve White 2007-07-05 08:15 |
| #3 The 'bound for the United States' is the vessel, not necessarily the cargo. Container ships tend to follow a route. The ship bound for Panama, the Libra J, goes next to Guatemala, then makes port calls in New Orleans and Houston. Two theories: The route from Haifa to Nicaragua is: 1. Haifa, Israel 2. East Port Said Port, Egypt 3. Algeciras, Spain 4. Manzanillo Terminal, Panama 5. Puerto Cortes Terminal, Honduras 6. Managua, Nicaragua (by truck from either Panama or Honduras) Let's say it ends up at either Panama or Honduras. The container could be reshipped to any other country in the region, like Columbia, Venezuela, or Mexico. Or, it could be stopped at any point along the way to Nicaragua and relieved of all cargo except for the air rifles. Or, it was meant for Daniel Ortega's friends. Note that, according to the Maersk schedule, it is off-loaded and reloaded at each port onto a different vessel. That leaves the possibility of it being re-designated for another port. Or, it could have been from any of the ports along the way, even prior to Haifa, but marked as originating from Haifa. Now, had it stayed on the Maersk Detroit, the route is: 1. Algeciras, Spain 2. Gioia Tauro, Italy 3. Port Said, Egypt 4. Suez Canal Zone Terminal, Egypt 5. Salalah, Oman 6. Jebel Ali Dubai, UAE 7. Jawaharlal Nehru Terminal, Mumbai India Again, it could be diverted at any point on the route, given any unscrupulous shipping agent, someone with knowledge of import and export, or a combination of. It was a lucky stroke that the Libra J makes an eventual port call in the US. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2007-07-05 01:32 |
| #2 Love the pic. I hope we get a follow up on this story. I have a jillion friggin questions that this story doesn't answer. |
| Posted by: Mike N. 2007-07-05 00:53 |
| #1 Haifa to Andalusia (exiting the Mediterranean, presumably) to the U.S to Nicaragua? I'm confused. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2007-07-05 00:22 |