Police yesterday announced the arrests of six men on suspicion of smuggling 100kg of ketamine into the country.
The Criminal Investigation Bureau said police arrested one Taiwanese suspect, Kuo Chi-lun (
Chog Ching Lue applied to import goods from Malaysia, the bureau said. The shipment arrived on Thursday at Kaohsiung Seaport and was to be transported to Keelung. Ketamine was found in the shipment.
Lue and the other suspects, who arrived in Taiwan before the shipment, planned to sell the ketamine within Taiwan, police said.
SURVEILLANCE
Five agencies cooperated in a surveillance operation -- the bureau, Taipei City police, aviation police, the Coast Guard Administration and military police -- after the bureau was tipped off about the drug smuggling ring.
Agents monitored the cargo, which was imported in the name of a defunct trading firm, upon arrival in Kaohsiung. Once the traffickers had retrieved the cargo and begun transporting it to northern Taiwan, police made the arrests.
'CONTROLLED DELIVERY'
A team from the bureau obtained permission from the Banciao Public Prosecutors Office to execute a "controlled delivery," allowing the drugs to reach their destination in order to track down more members of the drug ring.
Controlled delivery requires permission as it entails allowing illegal substances to be transported through a region even after they have been identified.
Several members of the drug ring were arrested in the greater Taipei area and at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, the bureau said.
The law enforcement agents also impounded three laptops and 17 mobile phones used by the drug traffickers.
The bureau said transporting ketamine is a violation of the Narcotics Endangerment Prevention Act (
SILICON VALLEY HUB: The office would showcase Taiwan’s strengths in semiconductors and artificial intelligence, and help Taiwanese start-ups connect with global opportunities Taiwan has established an office in Palo Alto, one of the principal cities of Silicon Valley in California, aimed at helping Taiwanese technology start-ups gain global visibility, the National Development Council said yesterday. The “Startup Island Taiwan Silicon Valley hub” at No. 299 California Avenue is focused on “supporting start-ups and innovators by providing professional consulting, co-working spaces, and community platforms,” the council said in a post on its Web site. The office is the second overseas start-up hub established by the council, after a similar site was set up in Tokyo in September last year. Representatives from Taiwanese start-ups, local businesses and
EXPRESSING GRATITUDE: Without its Taiwanese partners which are ‘working around the clock,’ Nvidia could not meet AI demand, CEO Jensen Huang said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and US-based artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Nvidia Corp have partnered with each other on silicon photonics development, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said. Speaking with reporters after he met with TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) in Taipei on Friday, Huang said his company was working with the world’s largest contract chipmaker on silicon photonics, but admitted it was unlikely for the cooperation to yield results any time soon, and both sides would need several years to achieve concrete outcomes. To have a stake in the silicon photonics supply chain, TSMC and
‘DETERRENT’: US national security adviser-designate Mike Waltz said that he wants to speed up deliveries of weapons purchased by Taiwan to deter threats from China US president-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for US secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, affirmed his commitment to peace in the Taiwan Strait during his confirmation hearing in Washington on Tuesday. Hegseth called China “the most comprehensive and serious challenge to US national security” and said that he would aim to limit Beijing’s expansion in the Indo-Pacific region, Voice of America reported. He would also adhere to long-standing policies to prevent miscalculations, Hegseth added. The US Senate Armed Services Committee hearing was the first for a nominee of Trump’s incoming Cabinet, and questions mostly focused on whether he was fit for the
INDUSTRIAL CLUSTER: In Germany, the sector would be developed around Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s plant, and extend to Poland and the Czech Republic The Executive Yuan’s economic diplomacy task force has approved programs aimed at bolstering the nation’s chip diplomacy with Japan and European nations. The task force in its first meeting had its operational mechanism and organizational structure confirmed, with Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) the convener, and Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君) and Minister Without Portfolio Ma Yung-cheng (馬永成) the deputy conveners. Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) would be the convener of the task force’s strategy group in charge of policy planning for economic diplomacy. The meeting was attended by the heads of the National Development Council, the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the
RSS