Police discovered a nursery for marijuana plants in northern Taiwan yesterday, seizing more than 4,500 seedlings and arresting four suspects.
Police claimed that the haul in Wuku, Taipei County has a street value of NT$10 million, and said it was the largest case involving marijuana plants for several years.
Tipped off last September, Taipei city police learned that drug dealers had smuggled marijuana seeds into Taiwan for cultivation. After a stakeout, police traced the plantation to a remote farm in Wuku.
The seedlings were to later have been transported to southern Taiwan. After three months, the drug dealers would have harvested the plants and sent them to a factory to produce marijuana cigarettes to sell in pubs and illegal clubs.
Police said the drug dealers were wily and would often change the site of the nursery.
Police would often find a "vast field" of marijuana seedlings, only to find it completely empty when they made a raid the next day.
Police then solicited the assistance of experts. As marijuana seedlings need a lot of fertilizer, police targeted fertilizer suppliers and were thereafter able to trace the nursery.
All four of those arrested claimed that they were only hired to deliver the plants and did not know they were marijuana.
Meanwhile, the National Police Administration said cases of marijuana and opium poppy cultivation have often been reported in recent years, and that they are planning to set up a training camp so that police are able to identify the controlled plants.
Police are also considering random checks on remote mountain regions."
Police said that Taiwan's terrain and climate are similar to that of southwestern China, parts of India and Thailand, giving the nation suitable conditions for growing opium and marijuana.
The seeds are small and easily available, and drug dealers can smuggle them into Taiwan with little chance of detection.
Drug rings often provide handsome money to lure farmers to plant the seeds in remote mountain regions, telling them that they are "mountain vegetables." The dealers can make huge profits through this method, according to the police.
Police noted that they made raids on marijuana fields in Nantou, Miaoli and Taitung counties last year alone.
UNILATERAL MOVES: Officials have raised concerns that Beijing could try to exert economic control over Kinmen in a key development plan next year The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) yesterday said that China has so far failed to provide any information about a new airport expected to open next year that is less than 10km from a Taiwanese airport, raising flight safety concerns. Xiamen Xiangan International Airport is only about 3km at its closest point from the islands in Kinmen County — the scene of on-off fighting during the Cold War — and construction work can be seen and heard clearly from the Taiwan side. In a written statement sent to Reuters, the CAA said that airports close to each other need detailed advanced
Tropical Storm Fung-Wong would likely strengthen into a typhoon later today as it continues moving westward across the Pacific before heading in Taiwan’s direction next week, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 8am, Fung-Wong was about 2,190km east-southeast of Cape Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving westward at 25kph and possibly accelerating to 31kph, CWA data showed. The tropical storm is currently over waters east of the Philippines and still far from Taiwan, CWA forecaster Tseng Chao-cheng (曾昭誠) said, adding that it could likely strengthen into a typhoon later in the day. It is forecast to reach the South China Sea
Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
WEATHER Typhoon forming: CWA A tropical depression is expected to form into a typhoon as early as today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday, adding that the storm’s path remains uncertain. Before the weekend, it would move toward the Philippines, the agency said. Some time around Monday next week, it might reach a turning point, either veering north toward waters east of Taiwan or continuing westward across the Philippines, the CWA said. Meanwhile, the eye of Typhoon Kalmaegi was 1,310km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, as of 2am yesterday, it said. The storm is forecast to move through central
RSS