A Taipei prosecutor was photographed having dinner with members of a gang at a Taipei City restaurant earlier this month, the Taipei City Police Headquarters said yesterday.
Police said that the July 18 dinner was to celebrate the inauguration of new division chiefs of the Four Seas Gang (
"We were quite surprised when we recognized his face," a senior police officer at Ta-an Precinct's Criminal Investigation Section said, referring to the prosecutor.
Patrol and plain-clothes officers from the city's Ta-an and Peitou precincts were sent to the dinner, held at a restaurant on Winlin North Road, to maintain public order and take pictures.
According to the police, the prosecutor was seen sitting with gang members, but they would not give the prosecutor's name nor say to which prosecutors' office he belonged.
There are three prosecutors' offices in the Taipei metropolitan area: Taipei, Shihlin and Panchiao.
Pictures of the prosecutor, which the police described as "evidence," will be given to the justice ministry's Department of Government Ethics this week for further investigation, which will be conducted by high-ranking inspectors at the ministry, the police said.
Nevertheless, the senior officer from Ta-an precinct played down the prosecutor's presence at a gang dinner.
"As far as I'm concerned, there is no law saying that a law enforcement officer is not allowed to make friends with gangsters. Also, they were just eating and chatting," he said. "I think it's not a big deal since they did not break any law by eating.
"According to our secret source, the prosecutor is a good, long-term friend of one of the gang's leaders. When he received the invitation, he was told that this was actually a birthday party so he attended," he said.
The justice ministry did not comment on the issue yesterday.
According to the police, the Four Seas Gang held the two-hour dinner party as the ceremony for its four new division chiefs. Among the 350 guests were other local gang members and businessmen. However, the police did not say whether police officers or military officers attended the dinner.
The gang was established in May, 1955, and operates mainly in Taipei City's Shihlin and Peitou districts.
As well as the traditional gangster businesses of blackmail and gambling, the gang also makes money from its restaurants, nightclubs and construction companies.
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