The head of the Taiwanese crime syndicate known as the "Four Seas Gang" (
Taiwan's Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) confirmed yesterday that Shanghai police arrested Yang Kuang-nan (楊光南) at a restaurant in the city on Nov. 1.
Eight other people were reportedly arrested along with Yang.
CIB officials said they are working with the Straits Exchange Foundation (
This is the second time Yang has been arrested in China. He was first arrested for a brawl at a Shanghai bar in March last year. Yang was released and deported to Macau after almost two months in jail.
At the time, Yang narrowly escaped Taiwan police who were sent to pick him up at Macau's airport.
China has since blacklisted Yang.
Local media reported yesterday that Yang had fled to Hainan Island, Singapore and the US before finally returning to China to consolidate his power base there.
The Four Seas Gang has been running gambling dens and nightclubs in Shanghai in cooperation with local gangs, local media reports said.
Shanghai police were prompted to take action after the Four Seas Gang decided to move its headquarters to Shanghai, according to police sources.
Cooperation between crime syndicates in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau has been on the rise following the handover of Hong Kong and Macau to Chinese rule.
Taiwan's CIB officials said they are optimistic about Yang's repatriation to Taiwan, but also expressed concern that the Four Seas Gang may mobilize its political connections on both sides of the Taiwan Strait to arrange Yang's escape.
Taiwan police suspect Yang has been involved in numerous criminal cases here, ranging from bid-rigging to murder.
Yang was convicted in a murder case in the mid-1980s and was released after serving time in jail.
One report said that Yang had tried to dissolve his gang four years ago, wanting to shed his criminal background and start businesses in Shanghai, but did not follow through with his plan.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most