Customs officials found the people in a locked section of the bow, fully air-conditioned and filled with bunk beds

August 12, 1999
Web posted at: 10:28 p.m. EDT (0228 GMT)

SAVANNAH, Georgia (CNN) -- The Coast Guard intercepted a 42,000-ton ship at sea and found 132 Chinese nationals being smuggled in a locked section of the bow, fully air- conditioned and filled with bunk beds, officials said Thursday.

"You could tell this was a large smuggling operation," Tom Fischer, the district director of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, told CNN by phone from the scene.

He called it one of the largest organized smuggling rings ever on the East Coast.

The ship's crew of 28 "is now in custody," Fischer said. The crew from the 685-foot Prince Nicolas, flying a Cypriot flag, consisted of Filipinos, Lithuanians and Chinese.

The 132 Chinese nationals aboard, ages 20 to 25, were in good health and to be taken to the National Guard Armory in Savannah, officials said.

INS spokeswoman Amy Otten said the agency had received a tip about a week and a half ago "that people may be getting smuggled aboard" that ship. The Coast Guard was alerted to be on the lookout for the ship.

The ship was intercepted in U.S. waters off the coast of Savannah around 5:30 p.m. EDT Wednesday and brought into port, the Coast Guard said.

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