Taipei police yesterday announced that several alleged gangsters had been arrested, as well as a leader of the Chinese Unity Promotion Party (CUPP), Kung Ching-chun (孔慶駿).
Officials said they had uncovered concrete evidence of links and working relationships between major criminal gangs and the CUPP.
In a crackdown on organized crime in the past week, law enforcement agencies have, in addition to Kung, detained a number alleged gangsters on criminal charges, including Sung Hsien-hsiang (宋憲庠) and Peng Ma Jen-chih (彭馬潤智), said to be junior leaders of the Four Seas Gang (四海幫), and Lin Chun-hsiang (林鈞庠), who allegedly headed up a local chapter of the Bamboo Union (竹聯幫).
Photo: Liu Ching-hou, Taipei Times
Police said that Kung worked with Lin Chun-hsiang and other gangsters to provide illegal loans and debt collecting activities, resorting to physical violence to force people to repay the high-interest loans.
Kung also allegedly worked with his girlfriend to entrap male clients looking for prostitutes.
In one case, Kung allegedly demanded that a victim pay NT$6 million (US$198,170) compensation for having sex with his girlfriend, Taipei Police criminal investigation No. 2 unit captain Lin Yuan-cheng (林淵城) said.
“Kung heads a youth wing of the CUPP and he allegedly had a close working relationship with other known members of major gangs. He also allegedly engaged in violent conduct in the gang’s illegal business operations,” Lin said.
This is the latest proof of the CUPP’s links to organized crime, which has also been documented in past investigations, police said.
“We will continue to crackdown on these criminals,” National Police Agency Director Chen Chia-chin (陳家欽) said. “We will fully investigate these cases, to prevent these criminal gangs hiding behind a political party. We cannot allow these illegal activities, which are being carried out in the guise of a legal political organization.”
Police officers displayed photographs of Kung receiving his CUPP membership certificate from CUPP Chairman Chang An-le (張安樂), founder of the Bamboo Union, who reportedly has connections to other major gang leaders.
When Sung and Peng Ma were detained they had name cards of CUPP executives in their possession, police said, and they are also suspected of having links to the CUPP.
Sung and Peng Ma allegedly operated illegal businesses in New Taipei City, including sales of narcotics, extortion, illegal loans and financial fraud schemes.
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it is fully aware of the situation following reports that the son of ousted Chinese politician Bo Xilai (薄熙來) has arrived in Taiwan and is to marry a Taiwanese. Local media reported that Bo Guagua (薄瓜瓜), son of the former member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is to marry the granddaughter of Luodong Poh-Ai Hospital founder Hsu Wen-cheng (許文政). The pair met when studying abroad and arranged to get married this year, with the wedding breakfast to be held at The One holiday resort in Hsinchu
An orange gas cloud that leaked from a waste management plant yesterday morning in Taoyuan’s Guanyin District (觀音) was likely caused by acidic waste, authorities said, adding that it posed no immediate harm. The leak occurred at a plant in the district’s Environmental Science and Technology Park at about 7am, the Taoyuan Fire Department said. Firefighters discovered a cloud of unidentified orange gas leaking from a waste tank when they arrived on the site, it said, adding that they put on Level A chemical protection before entering the building. After finding there was no continuous leak, the department worked with the city’s Department
‘SIGN OF DANGER’: Beijing has never directly named Taiwanese leaders before, so China is saying that its actions are aimed at the DPP, a foundation official said National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) yesterday accused Beijing of spreading propaganda, saying that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had singled out President William Lai (賴清德) in his meeting with US President Joe Biden when talking about those whose “true nature” seek Taiwanese independence. The Biden-Xi meeting took place on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Peru on Saturday. “If the US cares about maintaining peace across the Taiwan Strait, it is crucial that it sees clearly the true nature of Lai and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in seeking Taiwanese independence, handles the Taiwan question with extra
The Taipei Zoo on Saturday said it would pursue legal action against a man who was filmed climbing over a railing to tease and feed spotted hyenas in their enclosure earlier that day. In videos uploaded to social media on Saturday, a man can be seen climbing over a protective railing and approaching a ledge above the zoo’s spotted hyena enclosure, before dropping unidentified objects down to two of the animals. The Taipei Zoo in a statement said the man’s actions were “extremely inappropriate and even illegal.” In addition to monitoring the hyenas’ health, the zoo would collect evidence provided by the public
RSS