Finnish police find shipment of Patriot missiles in ship destined for Shanghai

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Finnish police find shipment of Patriot missiles in ship destined for Shanghai


(Kimmo Mäntylä, Lehtikuva/Associated Press) - Cargo ship M/S Thor Liberty at the Mussalo harbour in Kotka, Finland Wednesday Dec. 21 2011. Finnish customs found 69 Patriot surface to air missiles on the British flagged ship, destined for the Chinese port of Shanghai from Germany. Police and customs officials are investigating whether the shipment broke Finnish laws on weapons trading.

By Associated Press,

By Associated Press, Updated: Wednesday, December 21, 7:58 AM

HELSINKI — Around 160 tons of explosives and 69 surface-to-air missiles have been found by Finnish officials on a cargo ship bearing a British flag and ultimately destined for China, authorities said Wednesday. They said they didn’t know the origin of the Patriot missiles or who was supposed to receive them.

The M/S Thor Liberty sailed from the north German port of Emden on Dec. 13 and two days later docked in Kotka, southern Finland, to pick up a cargo of anchor chains, officials said. Its final destination was Shanghai, but it wasn’t clear whether that’s where the arms shipment was going, officials said.

Detective superintendent Timo Virtanen of the National Bureau of Investigation said dock workers found massive amounts of picric acid — an explosive — and the missiles as they were loading the chains and alerted inspectors.

Some of the explosives were not stored properly, customs spokesman Petri Lounatmaa said, adding that an investigation was launched into a possible breach of Finnish export and weapons trading laws and that the cargo would be impounded if determined to be illegal.

“At this stage we don’t know where it was loaded on the ship or if the Thor Liberty planned a drop before its port of destination in China,” Lounatmaa told The Associated Press.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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Finland 'finds Patriot missiles' on China-bound ship


The Thor Liberty is docked in Kotka

The Finnish authorities have impounded an Isle of Man-flagged ship bound for China with undeclared missiles and explosives, officials say.

Police are questioning the crew of the MS Thor Liberty after what were described as 69 Patriot anti-missile missiles were found aboard.

Interior Minister Paivi Rasanen said the missiles were marked "fireworks".

The MS Thor Liberty had docked in the Finnish port of Kotka after leaving Germany last week.

Dock workers became suspicious after finding explosives poorly stored on open pallets, and the missiles were then found in containers marked "fireworks".

The managing director of the ship's owner, Thorco Shipping, expressed surprise. Thomas Mikkelsen told AFP news agency from Denmark that he was unaware of the matter.

Another company official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the ship had been detained in Finland and said the missiles could have been loaded on to the vessel by mistake, AFP adds.

Police did not confirm Finnish media reports that the ship had also been scheduled to stop in South Korea, Reuters news agency reports.

'Quite unusual' The MS Thor Liberty left port in Emden, northern Germany, on 13 December and docked two days later in Kotka, southern Finland, to pick up a cargo of anchor chains, said Finnish Customs spokesman Petri Lounatmaa.


Patriot missile systems are supplied to US allies

It was bound for the Chinese port of Shanghai but there was no indication for whom the military cargo was destined.

Routine checks by Finland's traffic safety authority revealed a load of up to 160 tonnes of improperly packed nitroguanidine, a low-sensitivity explosive with a high detonation speed.

"Actually in our investigation at the moment, we have got the information that we found 69 Patriot missiles on the ship and around 160 tonnes of explosives," said Detective Superintendent Timo Virtanen from the Finnish National Bureau of Investigation.

Interior Minister Rasanen said she had not heard of a similar case.

"Of course, there are legal transports of weapons or defence material [through Finland] but in this case the cargo was marked as containing fireworks," she told Finnish media. "That is quite unusual."



Mr Lounatmaa said customs officials and police had launched a joint investigation into a possible breach of Finnish export and weapons trading laws.

He said that the crew of about 32 were being questioned.

Patriot missiles, designed by the US company Raytheon, are supplied to "US and allied forces", according to the company's website. South Korea is among states which deploy them.

[Toad]

vessel = British
harbor=Finland
missiles=American
origin of the shipping=Germany
crew=Ukrainian
1st destination of shipping=South Korea
2nd destination of shipping=China

Crates mislabled
Unclear where weapons shipment was to S Korea or China.

Oh, what a tangled web we weave...


My only thought is if S. Korea wanted Patriot missiles it could just outright buy them from the US legally and we would happily supply them to our Ally on the DMZ. No shell and pea game needed.

[American Patriot]

South Korea? Bullshit. They were enroute to China so they can back engineer them and duplicate them.

[Malsua]

I hope they trace back where these came from and hang the people who sold them.

[American Patriot]

I hope they trace back where these came from and hang the people who sold them.

They won't.

And we won't hear jack shit about this again either.

No matter how you dig, we won't find out the origin or final destination. They will keep it a secret.

[Toad]

Or it'll trace back to a very recently created company that was just a front, bogus names, no business history. Or I could see slipping some regular dock workers a crazy amount of money to bribe them into just loading up these crates no questions asked. Give a broke dockworker 100k to load those boxes over there and tag them for Shanghai, heck ya. In a heart beat.

[American Patriot]

Yup. Happens ALL the time. ALL the time.

(Ok, I don't know that for sure, I was just agreeing.... cuz I'm in an agreeable mood today).

I'm sure if you slip some guy a 100k, he'll ignore the packing list.

[Ryan Ruck]

I had read that it was found these missiles were headed to SK so I discounted the story.

But that information that they were in containers marked "fireworks" is something I had not read before and highly suspicious.

[Backstop]

Whoa.

Busted.

Here's their out:

Another company official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the ship had been detained in Finland and said the missiles could have been loaded on to the vessel by mistake, AFP adds.

[American Patriot]

"by mistake...."

Sure it was a mistake.

LMAO

[catfish]

They were headed to South Korea.

[American Patriot]

hahaha....

South Korea... then on to China. lol (ok, China by way of North Korea, in the air, LOL)

[Phil Fiord]

It is possible these were headed to SK, but discreetly and they screwed up. Sure SK is an ally, but with the recent death of JKI, there is a lot of uncertainly and our direct transfer of these missiles could be conceived as an act of hostility.