The top suspect in a Jan. 13 double slaying in Taipei’s Ximending (西門町) area was arrested along with several other people yesterday in Taoyuan by Taipei police.
Officials said they tracked Chen Fu-hsiang (陳福祥) using the signal from his smartphone, which they said he used to visit pornographic Web sites while on the run.
The division also arrested Hung Kuang-ming (洪廣明), who they described as an accomplice, and others suspected of setting Chen up with a hideout.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
Surveillance footage reportedly shows that Chen shot Tsai Kai-yang (蔡鎧陽) and Tsai Tsung-yu (蔡宗育) late on the night of Jan. 13 before stacking their bodies in a car in an Emei parking lot in Ximending.
The slain pair had allegedly set up a purchase of narcotics said to be worth NT$4.4 million (US$140,000) from Chen via Chen Wei-yu (陳威宇) — a maternal uncle of Tsai Kai-yang’s girlfriend, and from alleged Bamboo Union triad member Chen Shih-kun (陳石?).
Police said that Hung contacted a friend surnamed Yang (楊) after the incident and departed for Greater Taoyuan in a black Mercedes Benz registered in Hung’s name.
The police added that Chen Fu-hsiang and Hung had served time in the same prison.
Citing their preliminary investigation, police said that Hung provided only transportation and lodging.
Despite reported sightings of Chen Fu-hsiang in Greater Taoyuan over the past several days, the police had been unable to pinpoint his location.
As they tracked Chen Fu-hsiang’s smartphone signal yesterday morning, the investigators closed in after evacuating nearby homes amid fears of accidental injuries in the event of an exchange of gunfire.
Officers arrested Chen Fu-hsiang at 6:30am and allegedly found an MP-4 semiautomatic rifle, a Glock handgun, more than 165 rounds of ammunition and NT$400,000. Hung and two other suspects were arrested soon afterward.
The division said it would continue to investigate where the rest of the money was, though police suspected that most of it was spent on transportation and lodgings.
Chen Fu-hsiang was arrested on charges of manslaughter and violation of the Narcotics Hazard Prevention Act (毒品危害防制條例).
Police said that Chen Fu-hsiang was found to be deep in debt — about NT$20 million — because Chinese authorities intercepted a shipment of ketamine that Taiwanese officials linked to Chen Fu-hsiang and his accomplices.
Police said that 70 percent of narcotics in Taiwan originated in China’s Guangdong and Zhejiang provinces, adding that while 1kg of ketamine could be sold there for about NT$80,000, it triples in value when it crosses the Taiwan Strait.
Traffickers usually attempt to ship at least 500kg of ketamine per run, police said.
Police added that Chen Fu-hsiang was reportedly under pressure from his partners over the debt, despite exhausting his contacts of available funding, presenting it as a possible motive for the alleged slayings.
Additional reporting by Chiang Hsiang
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