Police suspect Taipei shooting may be gang related

Police yesterday said that the murder of Fang Shih-hsiang (方世祥) on Wednesday night at the Chilin Teahouse (吉林茶行), located on Taipei's Chilin Road, might be related to an earlier shooting last year.

According to the Chungshan police station (中山分局) of the Taipei City Police Headquarters (台北市警察局), the killing is believed to be over a financial dispute.

Police are holding a man surnamed Hsu (許), 36, as a suspect.

The man, nicknamed "little taro cake" (細漢芋粿), was released from jail recently and is reportedly has a criminal record for robbery and assault.

According to the police, Fang and Hsu belong to different branches of the Tiendaomeng (天道盟), an organized crime syndicate.

Police suspect that Fang had asked a gangster on his side to threaten Hsu in an effort to dissuade Hsu from trying to collect a gambling debt that may have been as much as NT$10 million. Hsu apparently was enraged at the intimidation tactics and killed Fang.

Police said that unlike most gangs in Taiwan, the Tiendaomeng is not centrally organized and is run by local heads who occasionally do not see eye to eye.

Since the government has made "anti-black gold" (黑金) activities a priority, the gang has kept a low profile.

Police are now questioning Fang's brother, Fang Shih-yung (方世勇), who owns the teahouse, in order to discover more details about the financial dealings of his brother.