15 Chinese Found in Cargo Container at Port of L.A.

LONG BEACH —  Fifteen Chinese nationals who crossed the Pacific Ocean inside a squalid shipping container were arrested Monday morning at a cargo terminal in the Port of Los Angeles, federal authorities reported.

Immigration and Naturalization Service officials said they found the group in a 40-foot cargo container from Hong Kong that had been unloaded from a freighter on Terminal Island.

Conditions were so unsanitary inside the sealed container that INS investigators had to wear hazardous materials gear, authorities said. The Chinese had lived inside the steel box for at least 18 days before customs agents tipped off the INS.

Monday’s arrest was the second of its type in three days. On Saturday, immigration officials discovered 15 Chinese inside a container at the Port of Long Beach.

INS investigators think the latest discoveries might be linked to smuggling operations in China that have been sending a steady stream of immigrants to the United States, primarily through Hong Kong.

In January and February, federal authorities found 39 Chinese trying to enter the United States after arriving in Long Beach in shipping containers. The discovery came five days after 30 other Chinese were found in cargo containers in Long Beach and the Port of Los Angeles.

INS officials say that since February 1999, authorities have found 113 illegal immigrants in shipping containers at ports around the country.