P. M. BRIEFING : Agents Crack Fish-Smuggling Ring

WASHINGTON —  Federal agents arrested the alleged kingpin of a fish-smuggling ring and detained the captains of two Taiwanese fishing vessels in the North Pacific as part of a sting operation involving the sale of $1.3-million worth of salmon.

Brian Gorman, a spokesman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said today that a U.S. Coast Guard cutter was continuing to shadow at least two Taiwanese drift net vessels about 1,000 miles north of Midway Island that were involved in the attempted illegal sale of 500 metric tons of salmon.

Patrick Lee of Taipei was arrested late Tuesday as he walked out of the vault of a Seattle bank carrying suitcases filled with more than $1 million in cash, Gorman said. Two associates of Lee were also arrested in Seattle.

Gorman said that as Lee was arrested, the fishing vessel Red Fin chartered by NOAA was rendezvousing with several Taiwanese vessels in the North Pacific to complete the transfer of the fish. When the two captains boarded the Red Fin to arrange details of the transfer, they were detained, but their two vessels fled, the spokesman said.