The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by a Chinese skipper convicted of trying to smuggle a large stash of illicit drugs into Taiwan in 2022 and upheld his 12-and-a-half-year prison sentence.
The man, surnamed Lu (陸), was found guilty of trying to smuggle 842.2kg of ketamine into Taiwan in contravention of the Narcotics Hazard Prevention Act (毒品危害防治條例), the final ruling by the Supreme Court said.
Lu, a Taiwanese accomplice surnamed Shen (沈) and two Chinese crew members surnamed Guo (郭) and Zhou (周) were caught by the Taiwanese coast guard about 20 nautical miles (37km) west of Kaohsiung’s Cieding District (茄萣) on Nov. 25, 2022, while on their way to smuggle the Category 3 drug into Taiwan.
Photo: Chang Wen-chuan, Taipei Times
When the ship Lu was sailing, the Sierra Leone-registered Aquarius 1, was first spotted, he sped away from the scene and zigzagged in open waters for about 15 minutes until his vessel was stopped and searched by the coast guard, the ruling said.
The four men were arrested and their illegal cargo was seized by coast guard officers who were acting on a tip. The officers also seized a raft, a satellite telephone, five smartphones and other tools during the search.
Prosecutors said that Shen, who had earlier been convicted of drug-related and illegal use of weapons charges, had in May or June 2022 fled Taiwan by ship. He was then picked up by the Aquarius 1 in waters near Lienchiang County’s Dongyin Island (東引) at the instruction of a Chinese drug trafficking ring.
With Shen and the other two crew members aboard, Lu sailed the ship to Thailand to undergo repairs, prosecutors said.
On Nov. 11, Lu was instructed by the ring to deliver a shipment of drugs to Taiwan for a fee of NT$700,000 (US$21,572).
They picked up the ketamine from an unknown vessel in the Gulf of Thailand on the night of Nov. 11. While the vessel was heading to Taiwan on Nov. 25, it was intercepted by the coast guard off Kaohsiung, prosecutors said in their indictment.
The Kaohsiung District Court sentenced Lu to 12 years and six months in prison, while Guo and Zhou received 12 years and three months and 12 years respectively. Shen received eight years and eight months.
In March, the Kaohsiung branch of the High Court upheld the lower court’s sentence for Lu, while reducing the sentences for the other three: seven years for Guo, 11 years and six months for Zhou, and eight years and two months for Shen.
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)
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
RISING TOURISM: A survey showed that tourist visits increased by 35 percent last year, while newly created attractions contributed almost half of the growth Changhua County’s Lukang Old Street (鹿港老街) and its surrounding historical area clinched first place among Taiwan’s most successful tourist attractions last year, while no location in eastern Taiwan achieved a spot in the top 20 list, the Tourism Administration said. The listing was created by the Tourism Administration’s Forward-looking Tourism Policy Research office. Last year, the Lukang Old Street and its surrounding area had 17.3 million visitors, more than the 16 million visitors for the Wenhua Road Night Market (文化路夜市) in Chiayi City and 14.5 million visitors at Tainan’s Anping (安平) historical area, it said. The Taipei 101 skyscraper and its environs —
Taiwan on Friday said a New Zealand hamburger restaurant has apologized for a racist remark to a Taiwanese customer after reports that it had first apologized to China sparked outrage in Taiwan. An image posted on Threads by a Taiwanese who ate at Fergburger in Queenstown showed that their receipt dated Sunday last week included the words “Ching Chang,” a racial slur. The Chinese Consulate-General in Christchurch in a statement on Thursday said it had received and accepted an apology from the restaurant over the incident. The comment triggered an online furor among Taiwanese who saw it as an insult to the
RSS