The National Immigration Agency (NIA) yesterday said it had captured 74 members of a multimillion dollar human smuggling ring.
The Taoyuan District Prosecutors Office took them into custody last month for trafficking underage Chinese girls to the US using Republic of China (ROC) passports.
The bust was the biggest of its kind in the nation’s fight against human trafficking, the NIA said.
Chung Ching-kun (鐘景琨), commander of the Border Affairs Corps at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, said the “snakeheads” used the identities of Aboriginal children who were under the age of 14, combined with pictures of the Chinese girls, to apply for ROC passports and US visas.
US immigration rules stipulate that people under the age of 14 do not require a face-to-face interview with immigration officials when applying for a visa.
“The smugglers also recruited more than 30 Taiwanese women, ranging from businesswomen, former flight attendants, nurses and college lecturers, to act as mules when taking the underage Chinese girls to the US,” he said.
The mules, known as “mommies,” were compensated with a free round-trip ticket to the US and between US$1,000 and US$1,500 in cash, he said.
The NIA said that upon arrival in the US, the victims often ended up working in brothels or sweatshops.
Chung said the NIA, in collaboration with the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), had been investigating the case for eight months.
The multimillion dollar smuggling operation was headed by two Taiwanese men and two Chinese counterparts.
Seventy-four members, including the “mommies,” are being investigated by the Taoyuan District Office.
The NIA believes other members of the group are still at large.
Unlike in the past, the syndicate did not use Taiwan as a transit point, but chose to directly transport their victims from Hong Kong to the US, Chuang said, adding that the ring chose this route because they were aware of tougher security at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport.
The commander said that this was not the first time that his agency and the US department had worked together to prevent human traffickers from entering the US.
Last year, with the help of the NIA, the DHS arrested six Chinese snakeheads at an airport before they entered the US.
NIA Director-General Hsieh Li-gong (謝立功)said the case highlights Taiwan’s determination and efficiency in combating human trafficking.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, the US State Department announced that Taiwan remained a “Tier 2” country in their annual Trafficking in Persons Report.
Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea and Japan all received the same ranking as Taiwan, while China remained on the Tier 2 “watch list” for the fifth year running.
Intelligence agents have recorded 510,000 instances of “controversial information” being spread online by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) so far this year, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said in a report yesterday, as it warned of artificial intelligence (AI) being employed to generate destabilizing misinformation. The bureau submitted a written report to the Legislative Yuan in preparation for National Security Bureau Director-General Tsai Ming-yen’s (蔡明彥) appearance before the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee today. The CCP has been using cognitive warfare to divide Taiwanese society by commenting on controversial issues such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) investments in the
HELPING HAND: The steering committee of the National Stabilization Fund is expected to hold a meeting to discuss how and when to utilize the fund to help buffer the sell-off The TAIEX plunged 2,065.87 points, or 9.7 percent, to close at 19,232.35 yesterday, the highest single-day percentage loss on record, as investors braced for US President Donald Trump’s tariffs after an extended holiday weekend. Amid the pessimistic atmosphere, 945 listed companies led by large-cap stocks — including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and Largan Precision Co (大立光) — fell by the daily maximum of 10 percent at the close, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. The number of listed companies ending limit-down set a new record, the exchange said. The TAIEX plunged by daily maxiumu in just
INVESTIGATION: The case is the latest instance of a DPP figure being implicated in an espionage network accused of allegedly leaking information to Chinese intelligence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) member Ho Jen-chieh (何仁傑) was detained and held incommunicado yesterday on suspicion of spying for China during his tenure as assistant to then-minister of foreign affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮). The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said Ho was implicated during its investigation into alleged spying activities by former Presidential Office consultant Wu Shang-yu (吳尚雨). Prosecutors said there is reason to believe Ho breached the National Security Act (國家安全法) by leaking classified Ministry of Foreign Affairs information to Chinese intelligence. Following interrogation, prosecutors petitioned the Taipei District Court to detain Ho, citing concerns over potential collusion or tampering of evidence. The
‘COMPREHENSIVE PLAN’: Lin Chia-lung said that the government was ready to talk about a variety of issues, including investment in and purchases from the US The National Stabilization Fund (NSF) yesterday announced that it would step in to staunch stock market losses for the ninth time in the nation’s history. An NSF board meeting, originally scheduled for Monday next week, was moved to yesterday after stocks plummeted in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s announcement of 32 percent tariffs on Taiwan on Wednesday last week. Board members voted to support the stock market with the NT$500 billion (US$15.15 billion) fund, with injections of funds to begin as soon as today. The NSF in 2000 injected NT$120 billion to stabilize stocks, the most ever. The lowest amount it
RSS