A Keelung court has handed down a 10-year, 10-month sentence to a man who helped smuggle a large cannabis shipment into Taiwan, a win for customs enforcement and a warning to trafficking networks using industrial cargo.

• Customs officers in Keelung found 227kg of cannabis stuffed into three excavator buckets shipped by sea from the US in January.
• Nearly 500 bags of the drug were sealed inside the heavy machinery, and inspectors flagged the container as suspicious on arrival.
• One man rented a warehouse in Taoyuan and signed for the delivery, planning to cut the buckets open for a payout of around NT$300,000.
• He was arrested when he stepped out for a meal, and his phone led investigators to the second man.
• The man who confessed got a reduced sentence of 5 years, 8 months; the one who denied everything and claimed he was just helping a friend got the longer term.

Outlook: Both sentences can still be appealed, and the third alleged organiser behind the scheme has yet to be brought in.