Nine people alleged to have participated in trafficking more than 80 Taiwanese to Cambodia using false employment offers, including two alleged organizers, were sentenced to more than 10 years each by the Taipei District Court on Thursday.
Lee Cheng-hao (李振豪) and Lin Chin-yu (林晉宇), said to be part of a Taipei chapter of the Bamboo Union organized crime group, received terms of 18 and 13 years respectively.
Seven others alleged to have worked under their command were convicted of fraud and contravening the Human Trafficking Prevention Act (人口販運防制法), among other charges.
Photo copied by Taipei Times staff
Four were handed terms ranging from 11 to 15 years, while three others received terms ranging from more than 15 years to 17 years.
Evidence and testimony were presented that Lee and Lin in late 2021 made connections with Chinese gangs operating in Cambodia and were paid for each victim recruited into fraud and international human trafficking schemes.
Lee and Lin placed online job advertisements deceptively promising high wages for people to work in Cambodian casinos or online gaming facilities, or to make adult videos, investigators said.
Jobseekers, upon being hired, were put in hotels in Taiwan to control their movements while passports and airline tickets were arranged, with criminal gang members escorting them to their flights, investigators said.
Once in Cambodia, the victims were confined and their passports taken, while they were forced to participate in fraudulent activities and subjected to physical abuse if not compliant, investigators said.
Lee and Lin were charged with entrapping 85 Taiwanese into such schemes — 54 by Lee’s group and 31 by Lin’s, with the duo paid about NT$18,000 (US$590.84) per victim, they said.
Along with other financial rewards, Lee’s group received NT$12.7 million, and Lin’s NT$1.92 million, with all proceed confiscated upon conviction.
All of those convicted ranged in age from 20 to 39.
“The young defendants gave no thought to legal gainful employment, but instead engaged in international human trafficking, violating the liberty and rights of the victims, with some assaulted and being seriously injured,” the court ruled.
“They endangered public safety and terrorized victims into distress and a state of helplessness in a foreign country. These are grave crimes against Taiwanese,” it said.
The defendants attempted to hide their involvement, evade their responsibility and refused to admit wrongdoing, therefore warranting severe punishment, it added.
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
Taiwanese barista Xie Yi-chen (謝溢宸) recently triumphed at the 2024 World Coffee Championships, taking home 1st place in the World Latte Art category. Xie, 28, impressed the judges in the final round with patterns of a whale, a moose, and a dragon in the three-day competition that took place in Copenhagen, Denmark from June 27-29, clinching the title of latte art world champion during his first time representing Taiwan on the world stage. At a press conference held by the Taiwan Coffee Association on Thursday, Xie said that creating latte art gives him a tremendous feeling of achievement. Speaking about his entries in
TRAVEL CONVENIENCE: The program is to shorten wait times while passing through airport checks and would start for Taiwanese from January next year Japan is to launch a new program to expedite entry procedures for Taiwanese starting from January next year. The Japanese government is planning to introduce new rules to shorten the time it takes foreign travelers to pass through immigration, thereby attracting more tourists to visit, Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported yesterday. An airport preclearance program would be implemented to allow foreign travelers to finish some screenings at their departure airport’s terminals and undergo simple confirmation procedures upon arrival, it said. The program would initially be applied to travelers from Taiwan from January next year and could be extended to travelers from elsewhere depending
ENGLISH-MANDARIN: A lawmaker said that he believed the change was made to follow common practice while operating in international airspace The air force this month started issuing Chinese-English bilingual radio warnings to expel Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft that fly into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ), a senior military official said on July 9. Air Force Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Wang Te-yang (王德揚) said the decision was made after considering three factors: enemy threat, the global situation and aviation safety. Previously the air force only used Mandarin when intercepting PLA aircraft that fly into the ADIZ because both sides use it as their official language. An ADIZ is a self-declared area in which a country claims the right to identify,