Prosecutors investigating police corruption this week carried out raids and detained 32 people for questioning, including four police officers, on allegations of receiving bribes and colluding with underground gambling dens in Taipei.
A police detective surnamed Huang (黃) and three officers from police precincts in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華) were yesterday released after giving statements at the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office and posting NT$10,000 to NT$30,000 in bail.
Huang, who has been placed under investigation, has been stationed at a precinct in Taipei’s Wenshan District (文山), but the corruption probe focuses on his activities while he was stationed at a Wanhua precinct, which he left earlier this year.
Two men surnamed Tseng (曾) and Hsu (許), who reportedly own underground gambling dens for illegal poker, dice and mahjong, were detained and their communication was restricted after questioning by prosecutors.
According to New Taipei City Prosecutor Yang Ching-shun (楊景舜), the investigation centered on bribe-taking by the suspects and they would be charged with violating the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例).
Yang said evidence indicated that proprietors of nearly 40 illegal casinos and mahjong parlors in Wanhua, including Tseng and Hsu, sent intermediaries to pay monthly bribe money in exchange for the four police shielding the businesses, leaking information on police raids and “going easy” when local authorities demanded crackdowns.
Materials gathered in the raids showed the gambling den operators receiving advance notice of police movements and people acting as “white gloves” using codewords in phone conversations to confirm that the police officers had received the bribe money, Yang said.
Yang said Tseng and Hsu had also regularly treated the four police suspects to drinks and sexual services by hostesses at nightclubs.
The investigation follows a case against New Taipei City, Banciao District (板橋) police detective Chen Tai-yuan (陳泰元), who was in August last year indicted on charges of receiving bribes to shield illegal gambling and entertainment operations under his authority, Yang said.
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