A ship headed to North Korea was seized by Panama authorities and was suspected to be carrying ballistic missiles and other arms hidden in sugar, Panama President Ricardo Martinelli announced Monday.
The ship had set sail from Cuba and was headed toward North Korea, and it was unclear how many weapons were on board, the Associated Press reports:
He offered no details but posted a photo of what appeared to be a green tubular object sitting inside a cargo container or the ship’s hold.
Hugh Griffiths, an arms trafficking expert at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, said the seized ship is called Chong Chon Gang and has been on the institute’s suspect list for some time.
He said the ship had been caught before for trafficking narcotics and small arms ammunition. It was stopped in 2010 in the Ukraine and was attacked by pirates 400 miles off the coast of Somalia in 2009.
Griffiths’ institute has also been interested in the ship because of a stop it made in 2009 in Tartus — a Syrian port city hosting a Russian naval base.
Martinelli told RPC radio the 35 North Koreans aboard the boat resisted police efforts to take the ship to Manzanillo, a Caribbean port, and were all taken into custody. He added the captain had a heart attack and also tried to commit suicide during the operation.