BOGOTA, (Reuters) – Colombia has authorized a Chinese ship to set sail after it was caught carrying 100 tonnes of explosives to Cuba illegally, the prosecutor’s office said yesterday, though it continues to hold the vessel’s captain pending a criminal investigation.
The ship was detained on Feb. 28 after docking in the coastal city of Cartagena on the Caribbean coast.
Inspectors found the explosives plus 2.6 million detonators, 99 projectile heads and around 3,000 canon shells on board.
The documentation presented by the crew said the ship, the Da Dan Xia, was carrying grains.
A Cartagena-based judge authorized the ship to depart after nearly two months because Colom-bian authorities do not have the logistical capacity to unload, store or destroy the weaponry found aboard, the prosecutor’s office said.
“The judge considered it necessary to free the ship with all the cargo to not put at risk our coastline or the communities,” Vicente Guzman, head of the prosecutor’s office for the Cartagena region, told reporters.
China’s Foreign Min-istry says the ship was transporting regular military supplies to Cuba as part of its trade and military cooperation with the communist-run island and that it had not violated any international norms.
