The National Police Administra-tion's Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) yesterday launched its first nationwide crackdown against gangs since Commissioner Hou You-yi (
In yesterday's crackdown, six members of the Bamboo Union, one of the nation's major organized crime groups, were arrested.
The crackdown focused on the gang's "Panther Division," which operates mainly in Hsintien, Yungho, Chungho and Wulai in Taipei County.
The Panther Division has become the most active part of the gang following previous crackdowns that forced the Bamboo Union's leader, Chen Chi-li (陳啟禮), to flee to Cambodia in 1996.
"To destroy a gang, you have to capture its leaders first," Hou said. "The [Panther Division] is now the strongest division of the union, so destroying it has become our priority."
Law enforcement officers from the Panchiao District Prosecutors' Office, the Taipei City Police Department's Chungshan Precinct and the Ministry of Justice's Bureau of Investigation (BOI) cooperated with the CIB in the crackdown, although police refused to say exactly how many officers are involved.
"The entire operation began in March this year, when the BOI received tips about the criminal activities of the Panther Division," Hou said. "We decided to wait patiently for nearly half a year until we could catch up with each move of the suspects."
The Panther Division has been linked with casinos, drug dealing, selling firearms and blackmail. Police also discovered that mem-bers of the division were trying to invite high-school students to join by luring them with drugs and cash. The police estimate that the Panther Division has about 300 members, most of them juveniles.
Police yesterday arrested the Panther Division's leader, Tseng Chien-sheng (曾建生), deputy leader Feng Chien-hsiung (馮建雄), lower-level leaders Tseng Wei-hsun (曾葦薰), Tsai Ching-lung (蔡慶隆) and Jen Chen-jen (任振任) and Yungho City Resident Representative Lee Hsun-hsiang (李訓祥).
The six were arrested at two locations -- a restaurant in Hsintien and Tseng Chien-sheng's residence in Yungho, where officers also discovered four pistols, one bullet, a shotgun, a baseball bat, an accounting record of the gang and 47 T-shirts with a panther logo, thought to be the gang members' "uniform."
The police said the suspects were transferred to the prosecutors' office for further interrogation and will be listed as national hooligans.
Law enforcement agencies are also investigating the gang's sources of income with a view to starving it of funds.
"Now that its major leaders have been arrested, we will begin to take away the gang's means of survival, so it will fall apart automatically," Hou said.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary