HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — Nine Chinese nationals were seen coming from the reef in the Pago Bay area early Thursday morning, prompting local law enforcement to respond and intercept them, according to Customs and Quarantine Agency Director Ike Peredo.
The multiagency task force established to combat a recent rise in unlawful arrivals by boat from the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands found nine more individuals in Pago Bay, officials confirmed.
Peredo said CQA, which is working in collaboration with other agencies including the Guam Police Department, received a tip that Chinese nationals were seen walking on the reef in the Pago Bay area.
“They probably came early in the morning because the reef is kind of long,” Peredo said, later adding: “Our officers did respond, including the police department and we managed to come across nine Chinese nationals coming from Saipan.”
Despite there not being any confirmation of arrests yet, GPD spokeswoman Officer Berlyn Savella said the individuals, three women and six men, were walking along Route 4 toward Pago Bay and appeared “soiled with sand, dirt and wet clothing.”
Officers then directed them off the roadway to avoid being struck by vehicles and requested assistance of the GPD Special Operations Division and the Guam Customs and Quarantine Special Enforcement Division, Savella added.
Arrests
Since the task force was established earlier this year, it has managed to arrest — and the Office of the Attorney General has charged — nine individuals who are accused of unlawfully arriving into Guam.
Those earlier individuals, however, were discovered to have arrived on other parts of the island, such as the Hagåtña boat basin, Ritidian Point and Tanguisson Beach, prior to Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero creating the task force.
The individuals arrested and charged in the earlier cases are Jian Feng Lu, Haize Lu, Ruigang Li, Fu Jun Zhai, Jian Feng Li, Fu Li, Guo Qin She, Xiao Juan Sun and Zhicong Huang, who are suspected of operating the boats that arrived at Guam, Post files state.
So far, all have pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor charges and are awaiting their trials in the Superior Court of Guam. They have been released from Department of Corrections custody.
Peredo, however, said the task force is continuing to do follow-ups on the arrivals for those who have yet to be identified.
“We’re getting information on that from other sources and, of course, the ones we have here right now, we’re working closely with law enforcement from the CNMI to move forward with the investigation,” Peredo said before thanking residents for assisting in the ongoing law enforcement effort.
“I want to thank the public for helping us out and letting us know if they see something unusual, especially coming in from our reefs, where people are walking in, because that’s the thing we’ve been monitoring.”
Peredo said he suspects the people arriving are making contact with someone on island, but didn’t elaborate further on the details of the task force’s ongoing investigations.
The public is encouraged to report suspicious activity to Customs at (671) 642-8071 or GPD at (671) 475-8615/16/17.
Police officers and customs agents frisk Chinese nationals who were apprehended Thursday near the Pago Bay bridge and are suspected of illegal entry into Guam. A total of nine people were arrested, authorities said.
