Law enforcement agencies on Friday raided a farm in rural Tainan, seizing cannabis plants worth an estimated NT$90 million (US$2.96 million) and detaining two men.
The seizure was the result of a joint operation between the Coast Guard Administration and police investigation units.
The two suspects, 28-year-old Hsu Po-han (許柏漢) and 30-year-old Tai Chun-te (戴俊德), have prior convictions for drug possession, information from the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office shows.
Photo: Wang Chun-chung, Taipei Times
Hsu and Tai rented several plots of land on a farm in Tainan’s Guantian District (官田) to grow cannabis, some of which was for their personal use, but the majority was to be sold, prosecutors said.
Police investigation units said they had received tip-offs concerning cannabis seeds being smuggled into Taiwan for cultivation, and they had the farm under surveillance for three months so that the plants could reach maturity before the raid.
Their rented farm looked like an ordinary fruit orchard, but cannabis plants were allegedly concealed between trees, prosecutors said, adding that the suspects would select healthy plants and take them indoors for better care.
The raid netted a total of 210 cannabis plants, along with dried product which officials estimated to be worth about NT$90 million, based on a street price at about NT$1,500 per gram and plant processing equipment.
The two suspects allegedly violated the Narcotics Hazard Prevention Act (毒品危害防制條例), prosecutors said, adding that they were questioning the two over the source of the cannabis seeds and how they planned to sell the cannabis.
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