There may be links between the case of 36 illegal Chinese immigrants found on a container ship here on Tuesday and a similar human smuggling operation uncovered last week in Long Beach, California, Canadian officials said. A Canadian Customs official said it was "highly likely" the two smuggling attempts were connected, but police said they had not confirmed the same smugglers were involved. Both attempts involved hiding the human cargo in squalid shipping containers designed for freight. The containers in which the migrants were found in Vancouver were bound for Long Beach. Canadian immigration officials have begun interviewing the 36 stowaways…