The Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) and police have arrested at least 100 suspected gangsters in a nationwide crackdown, with the bureau touting the result as “boding well” for public security and curtailing criminal elements’ involvement in vote-buying, violence and social disturbances in the run-up to the elections on Saturday next week.
Among the targets were members of three major organized crime syndicates: the Bamboo Union, the Heavenly Way Alliance and the Four Seas Gang, CIB 4th Investigation Corp Deputy Chief Wang Chih-cheng (王志成) said.
One major figure under arrest was a 35-year-old man surnamed Tsai (蔡), reputedly head of a Four Seas Gang chapter in New Taipei City, who allegedly used violence to collect debts, and was at the center of several disputes over money and control of territory.
Photo: Huang Chieh, Taipei Times
“Tsai’s arrest helps to halt violence and public disturbances, while illegal firearms, bullets, knives, cash and checks have been seized. This is part of efforts to prevent organized crime syndicates from interfering in the nine-in-one elections,” Wang said.
Police have arrested three alleged Four Seas Gang members, including Tsai, 22 alleged members of the Bamboo Union and 17 from the Heavenly Way Alliance, along with 15 wanted criminals and 84 individuals with various alleged gang affiliations, CIB data showed.
Among those arrested were two Bamboo Union members who are ranking officials in the Chinese Unity Promotion Party (CUPP), the pro-Beijing organization long suspected of receiving financial support from China, and seven other gangsters who are also affiliated with political parties, Wang said.
The three crime syndicates have a largely pro-China ideology, and many of their leaders have business operations in China or have fled to China after being prosecuted, CIB officials said.
One clear example is CUPP founder Chang An-le (張安樂), whose Taolue Group (韜略集團) has offices in Hong Kong and Dongguang, China, officials said.
It is suspected that organized crime syndicates are a primary conduit for the Chinese government to funnel an estimated NT$35 billion (US$1.13 billion) in financial support to pro-China organizations and political parties to run propaganda campaigns in an attempt to subvert the nine-in-one elections, they said.
Meanwhile, Concentric Patriotism Association (CPA) chairman Zhou Qinjun (周慶峻) and Chinese Democratic Progressive Party Taipei City councilor candidate Zhang Xiuye (張秀葉) have been barred from leaving the nation and confined to their residences for allegedly contravening the Political Donations Act (政治獻金法).
The office said they received an anonymous tip-off that the CPA on Oct. 1 held a feast at Ichilong Restaurant in Taipei’s Zhongshan District (中山) to “celebrate the National Day of the People’s Republic of China.”
The CPA had reserved 60 tables at NT$7,000 per table and Zhang was allegedly seen canvassing for votes for her campaign, prosecutors said.
Zhou invited nearly 20 members of the CPA to visit Guizhou Province between July and August for what was called a “landing treat” event, they said.
Zhou oftens visits underground currency exchange dealers, to allegedly exchange yuan that he brings back from China into New Taiwan dollars, they said.
The funds are suspected to be from the Chinese government and are backing Zhang’s campaign, they said.
Zhou has denied the allegations that the CPA and Zhang’s campaign are being subsidized by China.
Additional reporting by Yao Yueh-hung
The combined effect of the monsoon, the outer rim of Typhoon Fengshen and a low-pressure system is expected to bring significant rainfall this week to various parts of the nation, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The heaviest rain is expected to occur today and tomorrow, with torrential rain expected in Keelung’s north coast, Yilan and the mountainous regions of Taipei and New Taipei City, the CWA said. Rivers could rise rapidly, and residents should stay away from riverbanks and avoid going to the mountains or engaging in water activities, it said. Scattered showers are expected today in central and
COOPERATION: Taiwan is aligning closely with US strategic objectives on various matters, including China’s rare earths restrictions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Taiwan could deal with China’s tightened export controls on rare earth metals by turning to “urban mining,” a researcher said yesterday. Rare earth metals, which are used in semiconductors and other electronic components, could be recovered from industrial or electronic waste to reduce reliance on imports, National Cheng Kung University Department of Resources Engineering professor Lee Cheng-han (李政翰) said. Despite their name, rare earth elements are not actually rare — their abundance in the Earth’s crust is relatively high, but they are dispersed, making extraction and refining energy-intensive and environmentally damaging, he said, adding that many countries have opted to
FORCED LABOR: A US court listed three Taiwanese and nine firms based in Taiwan in its indictment, with eight of the companies registered at the same address Nine companies registered in Taiwan, as well as three Taiwanese, on Tuesday were named by the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) as Specially Designated Nationals (SDNs) as a result of a US federal court indictment. The indictment unsealed at the federal court in Brooklyn, New York, said that Chen Zhi (陳志), a dual Cambodian-British national, is being indicted for fraud conspiracy, money laundering and overseeing Prince Holding Group’s forced-labor scam camps in Cambodia. At its peak, the company allegedly made US$30 million per day, court documents showed. The US government has seized Chen’s noncustodial wallet, which contains
SUPPLY CHAIN: Taiwan’s advantages in the drone industry include rapid production capacity that is independent of Chinese-made parts, the economic ministry said The Executive Yuan yesterday approved plans to invest NT$44.2 billion (US$1.44 billion) into domestic production of uncrewed aerial vehicles over the next six years, bringing Taiwan’s output value to more than NT$40 billion by 2030 and making the nation Asia’s democratic hub for the drone supply chain. The proposed budget has NT$33.8 billion in new allocations and NT$10.43 billion in existing funds, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said. Under the new development program, the public sector would purchase nearly 100,000 drones, of which 50,898 would be for civil and government use, while 48,750 would be for national defense, it said. The Ministry of
RSS