The National Immigration Agency, police and the Bureau of Investigation yesterday raided offices associated with a suspected prostitution ring in Taipei and arrested staff and a number of alleged prostitutes, saying they offered their services at “clients’” residences, including at the Tipo, one of Taipei’s most luxurious condominiums, as well as five-star hotels.
“To avoid being busted, the brothel never employed more than 10 prostitutes at a time,” said Chiang Lin (姜霖), a lieutenant at the agency. “Also, they would ‘deliver’ the call-girl directly to a designated location, usually a client’s residence or private five-star hotel rooms, to avoid drawing attention to themselves.”
Investigators said the operation, which had offices in Taipei City and Taipei County, was run by He Chin-hu (賀金虎), 40, and Lee Hsiao-chen (李孝珍), 37. The couple allegedly hired Chinese prostitutes.
PHOTO: LIU HSIN-DE, TAIPEI TIMES
Chiang said the Chinese women had come to Taiwan using fake marriage applications. Each prostitute was required to see 100 clients before she could start earning an income, set at 30 percent of each deal.
They allegedly charged between NT$8,000 and NT$20,000 per sexual transaction.
Chiang said He and Lee would be charged with human smuggling and sex offenses, while the women would be returned to China.As of press time, the duo was still at the Shihlin District Prosecutors’ Office for questioning.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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