Police on Wednesday night arrested 10 members of the Bamboo Union organized-crime network for allegedly extorting money from popular singer Yu Tien (
"Bamboo Union gangsters Cheng Chien-cheng (鄭建誠), Lai Chien-hung (賴建鴻) and other gangsters were often hired by creditors to threaten debtors to repay money," the Criminal Investigation Bureau said in a press statement. "The police have determined that they threatened victims, beat them or kidnapped them. They have had a bad impact on public order."
Police said Cheng, Lai and the other suspects said that Yu owed them NT$6 million (US$191,000). In March they went to Yu's father's home in Hsinchu County, poured paint on the doors and walls and wrote on the wall, threatening to hurt Yu's family if the payments were not made.
Yu then reported the matter to the police, whose investigation indicated that Cheng and Lai had organized the extortion attempt in conjunction with other Bamboo Union gangsters.
Police said they spent more than two months gathering evidence before swooping. More than 80 police raided 11 locations in Taichung and Tainan counties on Wednesday night.
Yu and his wife, singer Lee Ya-ping (
Lee told reporters that Yu was so unnerved by the threats that he had to see a psychiatrist. Yu added that he did not owe anybody money.
Police said Cheng, Lai and the other gangsters had threatened alleged debtors on at least six occasions. In February, they threatened a businessman surnamed Lin and received NT$8.7 million from him.
Police said that in April, Cheng and Lai led the gangsters to abduct a man surnamed Cho, and detained him in a Taichung hotel for 11 days. The gangsters had asked Cho to call his aunt and have her meet them at a Taichung bus station. The gangsters planned to kidnap Cho's aunt when she arrived, police said.
Instead, Cho's aunt contacted police, who accompanied her to the station.
Police said Cho was eventually released after paying the gangsters NT$300,000.
Yu is one of the most popular singers in the country and is considered influential in entertainment circles because of his role in resolving disputes.
He has said he might run for a Taipei City councilor's seat in the next election.
The Bamboo Union is one of the biggest criminal rings in Taiwan. The network is dominated by Mainlanders, and has been actively involved in pan-blue political activities since its inception.
A magnitude 4.9 earthquake struck off Tainan at 11:47am today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 32.3km northeast of Tainan City Hall at a depth of 7.3km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Tainan and Chiayi County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Chiayi City and County, and Yunlin County, while it was measured as 2 in Kaohsiung, Nantou County, Changhua County, Taitung County and offshore Penghu County, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of
Weather conditions across Taiwan are expected to remain stable today, but cloudy to rainy skies are expected from tomorrow onward due to increasing moisture in the atmosphere, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). Daytime highs today are expected to hit 25-27°C in western Taiwan and 22-24°C in the eastern counties of Yilan, Hualien, and Taitung, data on the CWA website indicated. After sunset, temperatures could drop to 16-17°C in most parts of Taiwan. For tomorrow, precipitation is likely in northern Taiwan as a cloud system moves in from China. Daytime temperatures are expected to hover around 25°C, the CWA said. Starting Monday, areas
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated
RSS