Fishing boat hijacker caught off coast of Penghu islands

The Coast Guard along with Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) and other investigative units arrested the fishing boat captain surnamed Hsia and rescued the 15 kidnapped crew members on board after spotting the boat in the waters near offshore Penghu islands.

Holding a grudge for being dismissed, Hsia kidnapped a son of the fishing boat owner, and forced the 15 crew members on board to sail away from South Africa's Cape Town Harbor after firing several gunshots at the boat's ceiling.

The boat sped from the harbor without authorization from the port authorities on Oct. 22.

Hsia was hired this year by the owner of the boat, surnamed Liu, to catch tuna in the Atlantic Ocean. However, Liu's wife and son discovered that Hsia was verbally abusive toward the mainland Chinese crew when they went to inspect the boat in Cape Town.

Hsia was subsequently fired from his position as the captain.

For the safe return of all involved, Liu wired NT$1.62 million to Hsia's accomplice surnamed Chen in Taiwan. However, after the ransom was paid, Chen flew to South Africa while Hsia disabled the GPS tracking system on the boat without releasing the hostages.

In exchange for the safe return of his son, Liu even arranged for refueling of the hijacked boat off the coast of Indonesia on Nov. 18. However, Hsia sailed on with the other 15 hostages.

After predicting that Hsia was headed for Penghu, local authorities laid in wait for him in surrounding waters and successfully boarded the boat and seized the hijacker yesterday.

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