A group of 19 Taiwanese on a “tour” were repatriated from Malaysia on Thursday, as local police served them with arrest warrants upon their arrival at Kaohsiung Siaogang Airport, on charges of engaging in defrauding operations with a criminal syndicate.
Two of the accused, surnamed Hung (洪) and Lai (賴), were detained in Malaysia because they reportedly did not cooperate with police investigations.
According to Malaysian authorities, if the two detainees are found guilty, they are to be flogged with lashes to their bare buttocks, in accordance with local law.
The 19 men and women, headed by a man named Liu Wei-lung (劉維隆) were taken into custody by Kaohsiung City Police and Criminal Investigation Bureau officers upon returning to Taiwan on Thursday.
After receiving a tip-off in November last year the bureau said they formed a task force to help co-ordinate an eight-month international investigation effort, which involved law-enforcement agencies in Taiwan, China and Malaysia.
It was alleged that Liu, 27, had connections to a criminal syndicate in Malaysia and he lured mostly young Taiwanese on an all-expenses paid “tour” or “working holiday” in Malaysia.
The group worked for a syndicate operating from an estate in Selangor State, where a telecommunications base run by Chinese nationals was set up for making telephone calls to China, according to police.
The group made scam telephone calls to Chinese citizens, pretending to be Chinese police officials conducting an investigation and requested cooperation to conduct money transfers. The scam defrauded people of about NT$10 million (US$315,636) since March this year, the bureau said.
Malaysian authorities raided the Selangor State syndicate base in May and arrested 21 Taiwanese and three Chinese, all alleged members of the operation.
During the raid, the Malaysian police confiscated telecommunications equipment, mobile phones, laptop computers, and listings of thousands of people living in China.
Some of the suspects said they are victims, having been deceived by Liu and his associates and they thought they had been given a free tour of Malaysia, however, when they arrived they were forced to work, as their passports and documents been taken and they had no friends in Malaysia to ask for help.
Officials urged the public not to be greedy and not to be enticed by all-expenses paid trips to foreign countries, which might lead to unlawful activities as a conviction might mean severe penalties abroad and it also harms Taiwan’s international image.
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