Sat, May 15, 2004 page1

• Arrests in Chen shooting case apparent false lead

  DRUG DEALERS A trio of suspects with homemade bullets and an 8mm pistol do not appear to have used the weapon in the attack on President Chen

  • By Jimmy Chuang / STAFF REPORTER
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  Prosecutors said yesterday weapons found on three people investigated for suspected involvement in the election-eve shooting of President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) did not match those used in the attempted assassination.

  "Examination by police authorities have found the bullets smaller than those used in the March 19 shooting," Kaohsiung court prosecutor Wang Sun-jung said.

  

  Police from the Kaohsiung City Police Department yesterday morning linked three drug dealers to the shooting of President Chen Shui-bian and Vice President Annette Lu on March 19, only to later say that the weapons the three possessed were not used in the assassination attempt.

  PHOTO: CHANG CHUNG-YI, TAIPEI TIMES

  "The pistols and bullets found in their possession were ruled out as being those used in the shooting," Wang said, adding police would investigate whether the three had other weapons.

  

  The police yesterday evening announced that the guns and bullets of three drug dealers do not match those of the presidential shooting case.

  PHOTO: CHANG CHUNG-YI, TAIPEI TIMES

  The 9mm barrel, on which gunpowder residue was detected, and bullets were similar to the type used to shoot the president and Lu when they were campaigning in Tainan, police said earlier yesterday.

  The Kaohsiung City Police Department yesterday arrested three drug dealers, saying that they may have been involved in the assassination attempt on Chen and Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) on March 19.

  "I must say that up to this minute, none of them has admitted to the assassination attempt. We have not designated them suspects, either," Captain Chen Chia-chin (陳家欽) of the Kaohsiung City Police Department's Criminal Investigation Corps said.

  "We just discovered too many coincidences linking them to the assassination attempt," Chen Chia-chin added.

  After the police arrested the trio of suspects, State Public Prosecutor-General Lu Jen-fa (盧仁發) and National Police Administration Criminal Investigation Bureau Commissioner Hou You-yi (侯友宜) immediately flew to Tainan to meet with investigators. They held a press conference after the meeting.

  The three drug dealers are 30-year-old Chang Ming-jiunn (張銘俊), his wife 22-year-old Chu Wen-hsiu (朱雯秀) and 18-year-old Lin Chia-han (林家漢), who acts as Chang's bodyguard and business partner.

  All of them made their living by selling ecstasy in the Kaohsiung metropolitan area, police said.

  Chen Chia-chin said that the three drug dealers used to run a business selling ecstasy, as well as a night club in Tainan City. The police had been monitoring the group for some time, even using wire taps. But the police had not yet gathered enough evidence to take action. However, after the assassination attempt on March 19, they suddenly disappeared, which attracted the police's attention.

  The captain said that after being arrested, Chang told officers that the group closed its nightclub in Tainan simply because of poor business and planned to resume the nightclub business in Kaohsiung City as soon as possible.

  The police said they had suspected the trio might be involved in the assassination attempt for a varity of reasons:

  First, the three suspects weapons and bullets were similar the gunman's weapon and bullets.

  Second, forensic scientist Dr. Henry Lee's (李昌鈺) analysis and study showed that the gunman should be around 170cm tall. And it is possible that the police are expecting two suspects. The police said that Chang is 165cm tall while Lin is 175cm.

  Third, the homemade bullets which wounded the president and the vice president were one copper bullet and one lead bullet. The three suspects had homemade copper and lead bullets.

  Finally, the location of Chang's club in Tainan is only two blocks away from the scene where the president and the vice president were shot.

  During the arrest, officers discovered an 8mm German-made pistol, a 9mm homemade pistol barrel, nine packs of Ketamine, 456 tabs of ecstasy, a few marijuana cigarettes and 33 lead and copper bullets, all homemade.
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