A terrorist alert in October 2003 triggered yet another search in the worldwide hunt for one of the ships and some of the crew that have been widely reported to be part of Al-Qaeda's undercover shipping line. Following an intelligence tip-off — said to be from the US — that some of the crew were linked to Al-Qaeda, New Zealand authorities raided a Greek-owned cargo ship, the Athena, in Lyttelton, the port of Christchurch in New Zealand. The freighter regularly carries logs, fertilizer and cement between New Zealand and Asia. It had arrived in Lyttelton on 2 October and was due to leave for South Korea two days later when customs officials gave it an unusually thorough inspection, including checks on the identities of all crew and a full search of the vessel. Nothing of concern was found, according to a customs spokeswoman.

When the 17,000-ton Athena and its cargo of logs reached the port of Kunsan on the southwest coast of South Korea on 30 October, it was checked again by Korean authorities. They searched for weapons and forged passports but found nothing unusual on board. Some 37,000 US troops are based in South Korea and there are many American military facilities in Kunsan, including an airbase.

Many Searches

There have been many such searches for Al-Qaeda-connected ships and crew since the terrorist attacks on the US in September 2001 made the US and many other countries aware of just how vulnerable the largely unregulated and secretive global maritime industry is to abuse by terrorists. These concerns were underscored on 21 December 2001, just a few weeks after the attacks on New York and Washington, when British anti-terrorist officers and naval commandos intercepted and boarded the Nisha, an Indian-owned bulk carrier, in the English Channel. The vessel was carrying raw sugar to a refinery on the Thames, near London's Canary Wharf financial and residential district. British authorities said they were acting on an intelligence tip-off that the ship was carrying “terrorist material”. But three days of searching found nothing suspicious and the Nisha was allowed to dock and unload at the Thames terminal in early January.