Two members of a cross-strait snakehead ring have been apprehended for allegedly smuggling women from China into Taiwan to work in the sex trade, sources from the Criminal Investigation Bureau reported.
The two Taiwan men, identified as Kao Mu-shan (高木山) and Chen Ming-chi (陳明棋), were apprehended by the bureau's agents Thursday in the northern Taiwan city of Hsinchu on charges of being involved in arranging false marriages between women from China and local men and then forcing the women to work as prostitutes in Taiwan.
The agents arrested Kao and Chen after they received a complaint filed by a Taiwan friend of a Chinese woman, surnamed Wan (萬), from Sichuan Province's Chungqing City, saying that she was among six women from China being forced to work as prostitutes in an underground brothel in Hsinchu.
The agents also raided the underground brothel and rescued Wan and another Chinese woman, surnamed Tsai. According to Wan, she became acquainted with Chen and Kao last June in Chungqing. Wan married Chen in December and had their marriage officially registered in both Chungqing and Taiwan.
Chen brought Wan to Taiwan in March of this year but did not take her to his home. Instead, according to Wan, she was taken directly to Hsinchu by Kao, who arranged for her to live with five other Chinese women in an apartment, forcing them to work as prostitutes.
The police discovered that four other Chinese women had been brought to Taiwan to be forced into prostitution. Kao and Chen claim the ring is operated by a man surnamed Hsu, whom the police are searching for.
RSS