Taichung District prosecutors yesterday indicted five members of a gang alleged to have been involved in two serious armed robberies of armored vehicles in Taichung.
The prosecution requested that one of the suspects, who allegedly wounded two security guards, be sentenced to life in prison.
The prosecutors said Peng Sheng-tang (
They said the pair robbed another armored vehicle at the Taichung City Meat Market (台中市肉品市場) the next day, this time along with with Hsieh Chen-chou (謝震宙) and Shih Wen-liang (石文亮).
The prosecutor recommended in the indictment that Hsieh, also accused of other intimidation and assault offences, be given a life sentence and that the other three be sentenced to between 15 and 20 years in prison.
An accomplice who allegedly hid firearms for the other four was also indicted yesterday.
The two robberies took place in broad daylight late last year with only a one-day interval between them.
The first happened on the afternoon of Dec. 27, when an employee of the Taichung City Third Credit Cooperative was taking cash he had just collected back to a security van and encountered two rob-bers at Taichung's busy city center near the Chungyo Department Store (中友百貨).
According to the indictment, Peng and Lin fired two shots into the ground, overpowered the clerk and robbed him of the cash amounting to NT$889,000.
The robbers then fled the scene on a motorcycle.
On the afternoon of Dec. 29, according to the indictment, Hsieh, Peng and Lin robbed another cash van at the meat market. Hsieh allegedly shot and wounded two security guards and the three suspects took NT$9.05 million in cash, fleeing in Shih's car, the prosecutors said.
The police arrested all the suspects in January.
They also seized a large amount of weapons and ammunition, including 23 pistols, 966 bullets, nine hand grenades and one shotgun.
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