alien

^AM-WA--Aliens Smuggled, 1st Ld-Writethru,280

^URGENT

^Eighteen illegal immigrants found at Port of Seattle; three of them dead

^Eds: UPDATES with three immigrants dead, 18 total. Combines URGENT series. No pickup. ^Pursuing AP Photos

SEATTLE (AP) Eighteen illegal immigrants arrived here Monday 15 alive and three dead inside a soft-topped container aboard a vessel from Hong Kong, the Immigration and Naturalization Service reported.

It was the third such incident at the Seattle port in recent days, and the first involving fatalities.

The survivors were in INS custody, said agency spokeswoman Irene Mortensen.

The ship docked at Terminal 18 at about 2:30 p.m., Mortensen said.

"They did load the containers in Hong Kong," she said. "I do not have a date yet as to when that happened."

The INS was alerted "that there were people aboard this boat," she said, adding that she could not elaborate on the source of the tip.

In addition to the immigration agency, the U.S. Customs Service, the Coast Guard and port police were at the scene Monday, Mortensen said.

Illegal Chinese immigrants in canvas-topped cargo containers also have been landed at other West Coast ports. Since the start of the year, the focus has been on the Northwest. Twelve people were apprehended Jan. 2 in Seattle, and 14 more on Jan. 5. Twenty-five people came ashore at Vancouver, British Columbia, on Jan. 4 aboard a ship that had been bound for Seattle..

Other illegal immigrants were brought ashore in a container on April 7, 1998, in Tacoma, and there were several such incidents last year in Tacoma and Long Beach, Calif.

Some 600 illegal Chinese immigrants came ashore from rickety ships at various points on the British Columbia coast last summer.

Three Chinese men Sheng Deng, Ju Shu Hwang and Yu Zheng appeared in federal court in Seattle last week, one day after they were arrested for questioning at Terminal 18, where they were spotted observing the offloading of the ship that docked here Jan. 2.

A preliminary hearing was scheduled for Friday, when government lawyers must indict the men or show why they should remain in custody.