CHUAN HONG 68

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Notorious war grave robber detained again

The 'Chuan Hong 68', which had desecrated the wrecks of the Royal Navy battleship HMS 'Prince of Wales' and the battlecruiser HMS 'Repulse', which were sunk by Japanese forces during the invasion of the Malay Peninsula in Dec 1941, has run into trouble with the law once more. The notorious dredger has been detained by the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) again, this time over paperwork violations. In 2023, the Malaysian authorities had detained the 'Chuan Hong 68' off Johor for allegedly crushing and removing scrap from the protected war graves. In May 2023, local residents obtained video of the vessel unloading what appeared to be a large cannon, dripping with mud, at a Malaysian scrapyard. During the May 2023 boarding of the 'Chuan Hong 68', inspectors found rusting artillery shells and other scrap. The penalty for the crew members could be as much as two years in prison if convicted of desecrating wrecks. In Jan 2024, Johor Police's unexploded ordnance team was called out to deal with aged, rusted artillery shells found at the scrapyard where the 'Chuan Hong 68' offloaded her cargo. This included two 130mm shells - roughly equivalent to a 5.25-inch gun, of which the HMS 'Prince of Wales' had eight - and 55 aging 40mm shells, the standard size for the "pom-pom" antiaircraft guns used by the Royal Navy in WWII. The MMEA has not released an update on the case over the course of the intervening 12 months, and the 'Chuan Hong 68' has repeatedly returned to the same operating area northeast of the Singapore Strait, often disappearing from AIS for weeks at a time. This is the same region where she was operating when she was detained in 2023, and is approximately the same area as the HMS 'Prince of Wales' last known position. On the afternoon of July 1, 2024, the MMEA and the Royal Malaysian Navy boarded the 'Chuan Hong 68' just off Tanjung Hantu, Perak state, on the opposite side of the Strait of Malacca from the dredge's previous area of operation, and about 300 nautical miles northwest of Singapore. This time, the inspectors did not find illegal scrap, but they did spot 60 unregistered LPG tanks on deck. They also found paperwork irregularities in the vessel's documents and port clearance certificates. The ship and the entire crew have been detained pending an investigation.

Dredger and its crew detained for looting wrecks

Indonesia has detained the "Chuan Hong 68" for looting treasures from the wrecks of sunken ships in the Indonesian maritime territory on May 6, 2017. The fugitive vessel was again seized through cooperation with the Malaysian maritime patrol agency. The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency has been cooperating with the Indonesian Navy to seize the dredger in the Pengerang waters, East Johor. It was found in the Panggarag waters, East Johor, Malaysia, on Apr 28, 2017. It has also violated Malaysias law, as it neither reported its arrival nor did it have a permit to berth. The Indonesian Navy was interrogating the 20 crew members of the dredger. The crew members comprised of 16 Chinese nationals, three Indians, and a Malaysian. The Chinese vessel was detained by the Indonesian Navy in the Natuna waters, Riau Islands Province, for the first time on April 20 for illegally dredging in the Indonesian waters. On Apr 22, however, the dredger and its crew members managed to flee to Malaysia. Among the sunken ships looted by the "Chuan Hong 68" in the Indonesian waters were the Swedish Supertanker "Seven Skies" that sank in 1969, the Italian ore/oil steamship "Igara" that went down on March 12, 1973, the Japanese warship "Ijn Sagiri" and the Japanese passenger ships "Hiyoshi Maru" and "Katori Maru".