The Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) has arrested a man suspected of planning to smuggle nearly 1,200kg of cannabis into Taiwan, which was stopped late last year through the joint efforts of local and US law enforcement.
A 64-year-old man, surnamed Kao (高), was arrested by police late last month and is being held for his suspected involvement in the plan to smuggle an estimated NT$1.8 billion (US$57.8 million) of marijuana into the country, International Criminal Affairs Division head Dustin Lee (李泱輯) said on Monday.
The shipment, concealed in a container destined for Taiwan and declared as furniture by a US shell company, was intercepted by US Homeland Security Investigations and Customs and Border Protection in Long Beach, California, following a tip, Lee told reporters at a news conference in Taipei.
US authorities confiscated and destroyed most of the marijuana, leaving 19.5kg within the container bound for Taiwan, and passed along information about the case to the CIB, Lee said.
The bureau seized the remaining cannabis upon its arrival at the Port of Keelung on Nov. 16, and arrested a 57-year-old woman surnamed Yin (殷), who allegedly helped broker the shipment with customs.
It also arrested two men surnamed Feng (豐), 63, and Wu (伍), 79, who allegedly helped transport the container to Taipei’s Beitou District (北投), where it was to be unloaded.
The importer of the shipment was a 57-year-old man surnamed Chen (陳), who owned a furniture company in Taiwan, investigators said.
Chen fled to China before the shipment arrived, the CIB said.
He allegedly worked with a 62-year-old suspect surnamed Sun (孫), who has dual US and Taiwan citizenship, with Sun in charge of sourcing marijuana in the US, and packaging and shipping it to Taiwan, the bureau said.
Sun was detained at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport in March after arriving to make a connecting flight to the US, and is currently being held by prosecutors, the CIB said.
The investigation led to Kao, a suspected gang member in Taipei, who the bureau said masterminded the plan and was to buy the marijuana.
Kao started changing his residence frequently after learning of Sun’s arrest to elude police, and was arrested in Kaohsiung on Tuesday last week during raids in Kaohsiung and in New Taipei City’s Sindian District (新店), police said.
Kao was turned over to Keelung prosecutors on Wednesday last week and has been in custody since then, the CIB said.
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