Swedish police boards Chinese bulker to observe cable outage investigation

Swedish police on Thursday boarded the Yi Peng 3, a 23-year-old panamax bulker owned by Ningbo Yipeng Shipping and linked to the severing of two data cables in the Baltic Sea after being invited by Chinese authorities.

The vessel has been wanted for questioning by Sweden as the top suspect in the severing of the Swedish-Lithuanian and Finnish-German fibre-optic cables in November.

Since the incident, it has been anchored in the Kattegat Sea while diplomats in Stockholm and Beijing discussed access to the vessel. Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said they requested China’s cooperation in the investigation back in late November but noted that there was no accusation of any sort directed at China.

The Swedish police said in a statement that they were on board the bulker as observers, while Chinese authorities conducted investigations. Danish authorities facilitated the visit. It is understood that representatives from Germany, Finland, and Denmark also boarded the ship.

They also stated that “no investigative measures are carried out” by the Swedish Police Authority while on board the ship.

“The preliminary investigation into sabotage of the two cable breaks in the Baltic Sea continues,” the police authority added.

The preliminary investigation began in November. The police authorities in Finland, Sweden, and Lithuania set up a joint team to investigate the cause of the damage to the cables. The investigation is led by Sweden’s state prosecutor Henrik Söderman of the country’s unit against international and organized crime.

The Swedish Police Authority pointed out that the investigations carried out on the ship on Thursday were not part of the preliminary investigation.

Earlier this week, Norway’s TV 2 and Sweden’s TV 4 revealed underwater footage which further reinforced suspicions of sabotage of the two cables. Underwater drone operations conducted by the television stations and Blueye Robotics revealed a broad, dark drag mark on the seabed where the Yi Peng 3 passed over Danish data cables.