Eight people have been indicted for attempting to smuggle a large amount of marijuana into Taiwan, the Penghu County Prosecutors’ Office said in a statement on Tuesday.
Prosecutors had completed a two-month investigation into an alleged drug smuggling ring that planned to use Penghu as a relay point to move 687kg of marijuana into Taiwan proper, the office said, adding that the shipment had a street value of NT$1.1 billion (US$33.85 million).
The chief suspect in the scheme, a man surnamed Ko (柯), and seven others were indicted over alleged contraventions of the Narcotics Hazard Prevention Act (毒品危害防制條例) and on other charges, the statement said.
Photo courtesy of the Coast Guard Administration via CNA
Authorities in September received a tip-off about plans to hide drugs in shipping containers, it said.
A task force led by Penghu Chief Prosecutor Kuo Geng-cheng (郭耿誠) was formed of personnel from the office, the Coast Guard Administration, the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau and local police departments.
The drugs were delivered by a Chinese fishing vessel in waters southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), the southernmost point of Taiwan proper, in early September, the statement said.
They were transported to Penghu and loaded into an empty shipping container in an alley in Magong City (馬公), it said.
Two suspects, surnamed Hsu (許) and Huang (黃), commissioned a freight company to transport the container to Jianshan Commercial Harbor (尖山商港) in Husi Township (湖西), where they planned to put the container onto a vessel to transport it to Taiwan proper, the office said.
However, the law enforcement task force had been monitoring the operations, it said.
Officers seized the shipping container and found 26 large bags of marijuana inside, it said.
There were more arrests in September and last month, while the Taiwanese fishing vessel was seized, it said.
Ko, Hsu and Huang, as well as four other suspects, surnamed Liang (梁) and Yan (顏), and two Chens (陳), were charged with transporting Category Two narcotics under Article 4 of the act, which carries a sentence of 10 years to life in prison.
Another suspect, also surnamed Chen (陳), was charged under Article 164 of the Criminal Code for harboring a fugitive, prosecutors said.
The case is the first involving marijuana smuggled in a shipping container in Penghu County, they said.
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
Ferry operators are planning to provide a total of 1,429 journeys between Taiwan proper and its offshore islands to meet increased travel demand during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, the Maritime and Port Bureau said yesterday. The available number of ferry journeys on eight routes from Saturday next week to Feb. 2 is expected to meet a maximum transport capacity of 289,414 passengers, the bureau said in a news release. Meanwhile, a total of 396 journeys on the "small three links," which are direct ferries connecting Taiwan's Kinmen and Lienchiang counties with China's Fujian Province, are also being planned to accommodate
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) yesterday authorized the execution of convicted murderer Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), the first death row prisoner to be put to death since President William Lai (賴清德) took office. Huang was to be executed via a firing squad yesterday evening, which would leave Taiwan with 36 convicts on death row. Huang on Oct. 1, 2013, broke into his ex-girlfriend Wang Ping-chih’s (王品智) residence in New Taipei City, where he raped and murdered Wang. He also killed Wang’s mother. Huang was bitter over the breakup and her accusation that he had stolen NT$200,000 (US$6,074) from her bank account, prosecutors said
RSS