The body of a third person who allegedly died while being held by a local extortion ring that kidnapped and tortured dozens of people was found on Sunday on a roadway slope in Nantou County, the New Taipei City Police Department said.
During a raid on a criminal gang in Taoyuan’s Jhongli District (中壢) on Friday, police found 32 men and women who had been held prisoner, while information found on computers seized at the scene indicated that another three people had died in captivity, police said.
The remains of two of the three deceased were found in mountainous areas in Taoyuan’s Gueishan District (龜山), police said on Saturday.
On Sunday, the body believed to be that of the third victim was found in a suitcase on a mountain road near the 74.4km mark of Provincial Highway No. 21, police said.
The remains were later identified by a forensic expert to be that of a man surnamed Huang (黃), 38, who is believed to have died after falling from the 11th floor of a building last month, they said.
Huang’s remains were taken to the mountain road near Sun Moon Lake in Nantou County, police said, citing a suspect connected to the criminal ring.
The deaths of the three people were linked to the criminal organization, which allegedly kidnapped and forcibly detained jobseekers after luring them with offers of high-paying jobs, police said.
Police have arrested at least 20 suspects, including three in charge of abandoning the bodies of the three deceased.
A main suspect, identified as Chen Wei-hua (陳樺韋), 35, has been detained and held incommunicado after the Shilin District Court granted a request by prosecutors on Sunday.
Police have identified the two deceased in Gueishan as a 45-year-old woman surnamed Huang (黃) and a 57-year-old man surnamed Lin (林).
The two bodies have been moved to a government-run funeral parlor in Taoyuan for an autopsy to determine the cause of death, police said.
Police first conducted a raid in New Taipei City’s Tamsui District (淡水) on Wednesday last week and rescued 26 captives, and carried out another raid in Jhongli on Friday where another 32 captives were found, New Taipei City police said.
An undersea cable to Penghu County has been severed, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said today, with a Chinese-funded ship suspected of being responsible. It comes just a month after a Chinese ship was suspected of severing an undersea cable north of Keelung Harbor. The National Communications and Cyber Security Center received a report at 3:03am today from Chunghwa Telecom that the No. 3 cable from Taiwan to Penghu was severed 14.7km off the coast of Tainan, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) upon receiving a report from Chunghwa Telecom began to monitor the Togolese-flagged Hong Tai (宏泰)
EVA Air is prohibiting the use of portable chargers on board all flights starting from Saturday, while China Airlines is advising passengers not to use them, following the lead of South Korean airlines. Current regulations prohibit portable chargers and lithium batteries from check-in luggage and require them to be properly packed in carry-on baggage, EVA Air said. To improve onboard safety, portable chargers and spare lithium batteries would be prohibited from use on all fights starting on Saturday, it said. Passengers are advised to fully charge electronic devices before boarding and use the AC and USB charging outlets at their seat, it said. South
Actor Lee Wei (李威) was released on bail on Monday after being named as a suspect in the death of a woman whose body was found in the meeting place of a Buddhist group in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) last year, prosecutors said. Lee, 44, was released on NT$300,000 (US$9,148) bail, while his wife, surnamed Chien (簡), was released on NT$150,000 bail after both were summoned to give statements regarding the woman’s death. The home of Lee, who has retreated from the entertainment business in the past few years, was also searched by prosecutors and police earlier on Monday. Lee was questioned three
WAR SIMULATION: The developers of the board game ‘2045’ consulted experts and analysts, and made maps based on real-life Chinese People’s Liberation Army exercises To stop invading Chinese forces seizing Taiwan, board gamer Ruth Zhong chooses the nuclear option: Dropping an atomic bomb on Taipei to secure the nation’s freedom and her victory. The Taiwanese board game 2045 is a zero-sum contest of military strategy and individual self-interest that puts players on the front lines of a simulated Chinese attack. Their battlefield game tactics would determine the theoretical future of Taiwan, which in the real world faces the constant threat of a Chinese invasion. “The most interesting part of this game is that you have to make continuous decisions based on the evolving situation,
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