A nationwide crackdown on gangs was launched on Tuesday morning and 931 alleged gangsters had been arrested by yesterday morning, the National Police Agency (NPA) said yesterday.
Twenty-two gang bosses, 201 gang members and 708 other gangsters were arrested in the crackdown, the agency said in a statement.
The crackdown came on the eve of the funeral for Bamboo Union gang leader Chen Chi-li (陳啟禮) today. Chen died of pancreatic cancer in Hong Kong on Oct. 4.
The police agency said the Bamboo Union was the main target of the crackdown, and six leaders of the gang's branches had been apprehended.
Alleged branch leader Chang Wei-an (張維安) and eight of his alleged gang members were arrested yesterday for selling drugs in Ilan County.
Chang had been chosen to be one of the 10 Bamboo Union pallbearers for today's funeral, which police said was an indication of his status in the gang.
Police said Chang and his gang members were dressed all in black when they were arrested. The suspects reportedly said they were preparing to wear the clothes to the funeral.
Alleged branch leader Chao Fang-mo (趙芳模) was arrested with 26 of his alleged gang members on Tuesday.
Police said Chao had become branch leader three months ago and had recruited a number of new members.
Police said members of the Heavenly Way Gang (天道盟) had also been targeted in the crackdown, and several of its leaders had been apprehended.
Police said the gangsters would be charged with violating the Organized Crime Prevention Act (組織犯罪條例).
The NPA said hundreds of police officers would be stationed at the funeral hall to monitor Chen Chi-li's funeral. It said it wanted to ensure that gang members did not use the funeral to promote gang activity or recruit new members.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comment last year on Tokyo’s potential reaction to a Taiwan-China conflict has forced Beijing to rewrite its invasion plans, a retired Japanese general said. Takaichi told the Diet on Nov. 7 last year that a Chinese naval blockade or military attack on Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, potentially allowing Tokyo to exercise its right to collective self-defense. Former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force general Kiyofumi Ogawa said in a recent speech that the remark has been interpreted as meaning Japan could intervene in the early stages of a Taiwan Strait conflict, undermining China’s previous assumptions
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
RSS