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.
TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT: A US Air Force KC-135 tanker came less than 1,000 feet of an EVA plane and was warned off by a Taipei air traffic controller, a report said A US aerial refueling aircraft came very close to an EVA Airways jet in the airspace over southern Taiwan, a military aviation news Web site said. A report published by Alert 5 on Tuesday said that automatic dependent surveillance–broadcast (ADS-B) data captured by planfinder.net on Wednesday last week showed a US Air Force KC-135 tanker “coming less than 1,000 feet [305m] vertically with EVA Air flight BR225 as both aircraft crossed path south of Taiwan” that morning. The report included an audio recording of a female controller from the Taipei air traffic control center telling the unidentified aircraft that it was
A series of discussions on the legacy of martial law and authoritarianism are to be held at the Taipei International Book Exhibition this month, featuring findings and analysis by the Transitional Justice Commission. The commission and publisher Book Republic organized the series, entitled “Escaping the Nation’s Labyrinth of Memory: What Authoritarian Symbols and Records Can Tell Us,” to help people navigate narratives through textual analysis and comparisons with other nations. The four-day series is to begin on Thursday next week with a discussion between commission Chairwoman Yang Tsui (楊翠), Polish-language translator Lin Wei-yun (林蔚昀), and Polish author and artist Pawel Gorecki comparing
MOVING OUT: A former professor said that rent and early education costs in Taipei are the nation’s highest, which makes it difficult for young people to start families The population of Taipei last year fell to the lowest in 23 years due to high rent, more transportation options and the expansion of northern cities into a single metropolis, academics and city officials said on Monday. Data released this month by the Ministry of the Interior showed that the capital was home to 2,602,418 people last year, down 42,623 from 2019. The decline is second only to 1993, when the population fell by 42,828 people, while Taipei’s population was the lowest it has been since 1997. Taipei saw the biggest drop among the six special municipalities, while Taoyuan led the group in
A legislator yesterday called for authorities to investigate the sale of Chinese-made, Internet-connected karaoke machines containing “propaganda songs.” Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) said she was approached by a person who had discovered Chinese patriotic songs such as My Motherland (我的祖國) — which is commonly referred to as China’s “second national anthem” — in Chinese-made karaoke devices sold in Taiwan. The machines are popular, as they can connect to the Internet, providing access to thousands of songs, she said. One retailer, who asked to remain anonymous, said that the machines first entered the local market about three years ago, starting with
RSS