Taiwan Quick Take: Cops bust loan sharks

Police nationwide recently cracked down on a total of 123 cases of loan sharking, arresting 154 people for allegedly lending money at usurious interest rates and using violence to collect debts, a National Police Administration spokesman said yesterday. The clampdown, the fifth of its kind, was carried out between Aug. 8 and Aug. 11 by police stations across Taiwan, the spokesman said. He urged the public never to borrow money from loan sharks and provided the telephone numbers 110 or (02) 2356-5009 for debtors to use when faced by gangsters who use violence to recover their money.