Police yesterday announced the arrests of six suspects believed to have been involved in a rash of arms and ammunition thefts from an air base at Tayuan, in Taoyuan County.
A task force created to investigate three recent thefts at the base said the suspects admitted to conspiring to use ammunition and a rifle they had stolen to carry out an armed robbery.
"They admitted that they had gathered information about the route of an armored van that transports money in the area. They then stole the ammunition and the rifle in preparation for executing their plan," Taoyuan County's chief prosecutor, Chu Nan (朱楠), said at a news conference yesterday.
The arrests came just four days after the daring daylight theft of a rifle at the Tayuan base, during which a guard was knocked unconscious and relieved of his weapon.
The robbery occurred in the early morning as airman Lin Ming-che (
The attackers -- armed with three handguns -- took Lee's service rifle, but did not take any ammunition. Neither of the men were seriously injured in the incident.
In October, two separate incidents at the base involved the theft of more than 9,000 rounds of ammunition for the 65-K2 rifle -- the type of weapon stolen last week -- as well as several grenades and smoke bombs.
Chu said detectives had collected evidence suggesting that a number of former soldiers who had been stationed at the base might be involved in the case.
Of the six suspects arrested yesterday, one had served as a soldier at the Tayuan base, a police official said.
* Six suspects have been taken into custody in connection with a series of thefts at a Tayuan air base
* Two thefts occurred at the base last October; an armed robbery was reported there last week
* The thieves stole a rifle and 9,000 rounds of ammunition
After the October thefts, authorities from the Air Force and local police departments formed a joint task force to investigate the incidents.
Chu said task force members immediately targeted members of local gangs who had once served at the base.
"We then contacted suspects' family members and asked them to ask the suspects to give themselves up," he said.
Four of the suspects apparently heeded the call to surrender, turning themselves in early yesterday morning at Taoyuan County Police Department headquarters.
"Based on the information they received from the four suspects' testimony, the task force was able to arrest the other two principal suspects at their homes," Chu said.
"We'd like to thank the family members for their cooperation," Chu said.
Task force members said most of the stolen ammunition has been recovered, and that the suspects had fired only a few rounds while testing the weapons.
Investigators said the sus-pects were also believed to have taken part in two other robbery cases last year involving coastal patrol units.
A spokesman for the Air Force apologized to the public yesterday for the inadequate military training that allowed the thefts to occur in the first place, vowing to increase security at military barracks and to boost sentries' discipline.
"We will enhance training courses for sentries, and we will allow them to use their weapons as necessary to defend themselves in the case of any incidents," said Air Force Cultural Propaganda Department spokesman Yu Huan-ting (于煥庭).
RSS