Police bust illegal gunrunning ring

Police have busted a large cross-border firearms smuggling ring and arrested five suspects, the National Police Administration's Criminal Investigation Bureau announced yesterday.

Police also seized five US-made submachine guns, 10 pistols and more than 600 rounds of ammunition, all of which were smuggled from the Philippines and are estimated to have a street value of more than NT$10 million.

The suspects had used a Philippine islet and Orchid Island as midpoints for the smuggling operation, CBI officials said.

Moreover, they said, a former policeman who retired from his post at a prison in Taitung County last year is suspected of having assisted in illegally transporting the firearms from the Philippines.

The former policeman, identified only by his family name of Ko, is still at large. CBI officials said they suspect that Ko may be hiding in the Philippines.

"We'll seek the assistance of the International Police Organization to find him," said a CBI agent.

Acting on information that a criminal ring was plotting to smuggle large quantities of firearms from Southeast Asia and China around Lunar New Year, CBI agents began five months ago to monitor and track activities of fishing boats owned by Taichung-based Feiyang International Fishing Co.

According to police investigations, Feiyang Co was owned by Liao Teh-yang (廖德揚), 34, who has previous criminal records for kidnapping, extortion and fraud. Fei had allegedly often traveled to the Philippines for business purposes and had reportedly developed ties with Philippine police, the coast guard and underworld gangs.

Police found that Liao left for the Philippines Dec. 3 last year to negotiate deals for the transfer of the weapons. On the same day, Liao's accomplice, Tai Liang-jui (戴良濬), 48, who was involved in a large firearms smuggling case in 1989, returned to Taiwan from abroad to raise funds for Liao's gun and ammunition purchases in the Philippines.

Liao returned to Taiwan last week and immediately traveled to Taitung to arrange for an illegal firearms delivery.

A Feiyang Co fishing boat, the Mantatsai No. 2, entered Taitung Port on Wednesday evening. Shortly afterwards, CBI agents spotted Liao and Wu Chun-hsiung (烏春雄), the captain of the boat, leaving the vessel carrying luggage. They followed Liao and Wu to a bus stop in downtown Taitung and arrested the men.

CBI agents uncovered three US-made Intertake submachine guns, two Uzi submachine guns and a total of nine standard 9mm pistols made in Spain, Brazil, Italy, Argentina and the US, in addition to a revolver and 600-plus bullets.

With the cooperation of the two suspects, CBI agents managed to arrest three other gang members -- Tai Liang-jui, Hsiao Mu-hsiang (蕭木祥) and Kuo Wen-tze (郭文哲) in Taichung last night. All three had prior criminal records.

CBI agents said the ring had shipped the firearms from Apali on a small northern Philippine islet to Orchid Island. The Mantatsai No. 2 then took the firearms to Taitung.