A “career criminal” was arrested on Dec. 21 by Taipei police after having been on the run for 23 years, the Shilin Precinct said in a statement on Monday.
The precinct said it acted on an anonymous tip that a member of an organized crime group, surnamed Chen (陳), had been seen in Taipei’s Shilin District (士林), where he was previously known to operate.
Chen, known by the nickname “Teacher Chen,” was a career criminal who operated out of Shezi Neighborhood (社子), it said.
Photo: Taipei Times file
Chen was heavily involved with loan shark and debt collecting operations, but he went on the run on Dec. 10, 1999, after he and an accomplice allegedly shot a person in a karaoke bar, killing them, it said.
After a warrant was issued in 2000, Chen evaded arrest for 23 years, showing an understanding of police techniques that enabled him to move between New Taipei City and Taoyuan, it said.
Chen never carried identification, had no fixed residence, generally only went out at night to avoid being seen and only traveled by walking or cycling, it said.
However, in the past two years, he began to operate out of Shezi again, likely because the statute of limitations was about to expire on his warrant and because he had been away from the area he was familiar with for an extended period while refraining from contacting acquaintances, police said.
The precinct said that its chief, Huang Shwei-uain (黃水願), established a special taskforce in response to the sighting of Chen.
The taskforce collected enough evidence to arrest Chen on Dec. 21 when he was dining with friends, it said.
As there was no photograph of Chen on file, police had to take his fingerprints to confirm his identity for the arrest, upon which he was transferred to the prosecutors’ office on suspicion of murder, it added.
INFRASTRUCTURE: Work on the second segment, from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, is expected to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2039, the railway bureau said Planned high-speed rail (HSR) extensions would blanket Taiwan proper in four 90-minute commute blocs to facilitate regional economic and livelihood integration, Railway Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) said in an interview published yesterday. A project to extend the high-speed rail from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝) is the first part of the bureau’s greater plan to expand rail coverage, he told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The bureau’s long-term plan is to build a loop to circle Taiwan proper that would consist of four sections running from Taipei to Hualien, Hualien to
A relatively large earthquake may strike within the next two weeks, following a magnitude 5.2 temblor that shook Taitung County this morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. An earthquake struck at 8:18am today 10.2km west of Taitung County Hall in Taitung City at a relatively shallow depth of 6.5km, CWA data showed. The largest intensity of 4 was felt in Taitung and Pingtung counties, which received an alert notice, while areas north of Taichung did not feel any shaking, the CWA said. The earthquake was the result of the collision between the Philippine Plate and the Eurasian Plate, the agency said, adding
Snow fell in the mountainous areas of northern, central and eastern Taiwan in the early hours of yesterday, as cold air currents moved south. In the northern municipality of Taoyuan, snow started falling at about 6am in Fusing District (復興), district head Su Tso-hsi (蘇佐璽) said. By 10am, Lalashan National Forest Recreation Area, as well as Hualing (華陵), Sanguang (三光) and Gaoyi (高義) boroughs had seen snowfall, Su said. In central Taiwan, Shei-Pa National Park in Miaoli County and Hehuanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Nantou County saw snowfall of 5cm and 6cm respectively, by 10am, staff at the parks said. It began snowing
The 2025 Kaohsiung Wonderland–Winter Amusement Park event has teamed up with the Japanese manga series Chiikawa this year for its opening at Love River Bay yesterday, attracting more than 10,000 visitors, the city government said. Following the success of the “2024 Kaohsiung Wonderland” collaboration with a giant inflatable yellow duck installation designed by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, this year the Kaohsiung Tourism Bureau collaborated with Chiikawa by Japanese illustrator Nagano to present two giant inflatable characters. Two inflatable floats — the main character, Chiikwa, a white bear-like creature with round ears, and Hachiware, a white cat with a blue-tipped tail
RSS