Minister of the Interior Su Jia-chyan (蘇嘉全), Minister of Justice Morley Shih (施茂林), State Public Prosecutor-General Wu Ying-chao (吳英昭) and National Police Agency Director-General Shieh Ing-dan (謝銀黨) yesterday launched a new anti-gang program as the government seeks to relentlessly crack down on the nation's criminal underworld.
The announcement comes after a victory for law enforcement officials after the arrest of the notorious kidnap-for-ransom gangster Chang Hsi-ming (張錫銘) on Wednesday.
The initiative, called Chihping Anti-Gangster Program (治平專案), is a large-scale project that will crack down on organized crime.
PHOTO: LIU HSIN-DE, TAIPEI TIMES
"The project will take aim at five types of organized crime activity," Shih said. "These include groups which take advantage of legal businesses to cover their illegal activities; violent debt collectors; elected officials with underworld connections; politicians who ask for kickbacks or are involved illegal activities surrounding the major construction projects; and international crime rings that operate on either side of the Taiwan Strait."
According to Shih, Chang and his associates belong in the last category, but police have yet to determine who was the mastermind behind the infamous kidnap-for-ransom network.
"Our investigation showed that crime rings assign detailed tasks to each of its members. Everyone in the group is involved in a portion of a crime. As a result, it also takes more time for officers to locate and arrest all the people involved," Shih said.
Su said that even though the arrest of Chang and several of his fellow gang members was a victory for the fight against organized crime, the investigation into the nation's most-wanted criminal continues.
"In Chang's case, we have arrested 52 gang members, seized 38 assault rifles, submachine guns and pistols, 1,700 rounds of ammunition and body armor," Su said.
"But this is not good enough, so we have to come up with more relevant leads and keep fighting against the criminals," he added.
According to the interior minister, the investigation also revealed that some of Chang's accomplices have fled to China.
"No matter where they are hiding, we will do our best to bring them back to Taiwan for trial and punishment, even if they are hiding in China," Su said.
Shih also announced that Prosecutor-General Wu was assigned to lead the anti-gang initiative.
In the past, if a gang member was arrested by police during a special crackdown drive, they were taken to the prison on Green Island and usually detained indifinitely without charge or trial.
However, the Green Island Prison was decommissioned in 2002 and all its inmates were moved to prisons in Hualien and Taitung.
"In the future, whoever is arrested in an anti-gang drive will be detained in local detention jails and officers will carry out their jobs in a professional manner," Wu said.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard