The Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) on Sunday denied that it was unaware that Beijing had arrested 10 Taiwanese in China for alleged involvement in a Uganda-based telecoms fraud ring, and said 55 people implicated in the same case had been apprehended in Taiwan.
China’s CCTV on Saturday reported that the Guizhou Public Security Department had busted a telecom fraud ring that allegedly attempted to defraud a public agency in Guizhou of about 117 million yuan (US$18.01 million).
The crime ring’s telecoms base was in Uganda, and 10 of the 62 people arrested in China in connection with the case are Taiwanese, the state-run Chinese TV station said.
Guizhou police in December last year said that a Taiwanese was the “mastermind” of the operation, the CIB said on Sunday, one day after government agencies initially seemed unaware of the reported case.
The CIB said authorities from both sides of the Taiwan Strait launched investigations into the case based on a cross-strait cooperation agreement aimed at combating crime and providing judicial mutual assistance.
China sent a five-member task force to Taiwan on Jan. 5 to consult with Taiwanese authorities over facilitating the investigation, CIB official Huang Chien-jung (黃建榮) said.
In the two months following the visit, 55 suspects of unspecified nationalities were arrested in Taoyuan, Hsinchu and Taichung, and about NT$6.689 million (US$206,699) in cash and 1,983 China Unionpay cards were confiscated.
The suspects have been referred to prosecutors’ offices in various districts, Huang said.
Taiwanese and Chinese authorities continue to work together to track down other Taiwanese suspects, Huang said.
The fraud ring was allegedly involved in more than 180 cases targeting Chinese nationals in 26 provinces, Huang said.
The busting of the ring is one of the biggest operations undertaken by Chinese authorities in recent years, according to Chinese media reports.
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