Arms seized on ship in Philippines

[CrackSmokeRepublican]

Arms seized on ship in Philippines

Five crates containing 50 Israeli-made assault rifles were seized from the MV Captain Ufuk AFP

The captain and crew of a cargo ship seized near Manila with crates of illegal Israeli-made weapons on board are to face gun-smuggling charges, officials in the Philippines have said.

Customs and coast guard officers searched the Philippine-owned ship MV Captain Ufuk after suspicions were raised when it docked at a port near Bataan province without prior notice, officials said on Friday.

They found five crates containing 50 Israeli-made Galil assault rifles on board the vessel.

Ten empty crates were also found and intelligence reports indicated the contents were unloaded at sea onto a yacht.

Authorities are investigating whether the ship, which came into the port of Mariveles northwest of the capital, Manila, was transporting firearms to illegal syndicates, local warlords or rebel groups.

Long conflicts

"These guns are the primary weapon of the Israeli army," Armand Balilo, a coast guard spokesman, said. "This is dangerous if it falls into the wrong hands."


A map on the vessel showed it was headed towards a province south of the capital EPA


Leonilo de la Cruz, the regional police director, said the mostly Georgian crew did not speak English, and failed to provide any documentation to prove the cargo was legitimate.

"We're having a hard time talking to them," de la Cruz said, adding an interpreter would be helping investigations.

"They are either pretending they don't know how to speak English or they simply do not know how."

A map found on board showed the Panama-registered vessel had sailed from a port in Turkey bound for the Batangas province in the south, officials said.

The Philippines has been battling communists and Muslim separatists for decades in conflicts that have killed about 160,000 people.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia- ... 17807.html