Twenty-eight people have been arrested in connection with two gun attacks on a New Taipei City pawn shop last month, including the alleged mastermind, who was repatriated from Malaysia on Friday, police said on Saturday.
After being questioned by police, the main suspect, surnamed Lin (林), was handed over to the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office on suspicion of breaching the Organized Crime Prevention Act (組織犯罪防制條例) and the Controlling Guns, Ammunition and Knives Act (槍砲彈藥刀械管制條例), police said.
Lin is accused of organizing the April 20 attack, in which a 17-year-old fired more than 50 shots at a pawn shop in Tucheng District (土城) that was closed at the time. The teenager had taken a taxi to the site and after the attack took the same taxi to a nearby police station, where he confessed to the shooting.
Photo: CNA
Investigators established a link to another shooting 10 days earlier, in which a 15-year-old is suspected of firing at the pawn shop. No one was hurt in the shootings.
New Taipei City Police Department Commissioner Liao Hsun-cheng (廖訓誠) said that the reason the 17-year-old shooter gave for the attack and his explanation of how the gun came into his possession were considered highly suspicious by police, given his young age.
Further investigation revealed that the shooting was most likely related to a disagreement over money between the Huashan Gang and a faction of the Bamboo Union organized crime group, which police suspect is headed by Lin.
Police suspect that one of Lin’s subordinates owed more than NT$1 million (US$32,531) to the pawn shop, which is allegedly run by the Huashan Gang.
Besides the two shootings, there were several altercations between the two gangs over the debt, police said.
Police said that Lin, who enlisted the assistance of another Bamboo Union faction, was identified as the key suspect behind the shootings based on surveillance camera footage, Lin’s digital footprint and statements by other suspects.
Lin and his bodyguard fled to Kuala Lumpur on the day of the second attack on the pawn shop, but were detained upon arrival after Taiwanese police alerted their Malaysian counterparts.
They were deported by Malaysian authorities and escorted back to Taiwan by Criminal Investigation Bureau officers on Friday.
Over the past few weeks, 26 other suspected gang members have been arrested in connection with the incidents in Pingtung, Yunlin and Hualien counties, leading to the dissolution of the two Bamboo Union factions, police said.
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