Taiwanese and Malaysian authorities have seized 30.5kg of heroin and 254kg of ketamine in two separate busts, the Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau said yesterday.
On Sept. 27, customs inspectors at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport found 30.5kg of heroin wrapped in aluminum foil inside 90 stainless steel bottles imported from Malaysia, ministry official Lee Chi-yi (李秩義) said.
Customs officials, believing the bottles were too small for their size, dismantled them to reveal heroin packed into the bottoms.
Photo: Cheng Shu-ting, Taipei Times
A special investigative team formed by the ministry, the Taipei Customs Office and the Taoyuan District Prosecutors’ Office identified a Malaysian suspect, but he was found to have left the country, Lee said.
The team provided Malaysian police with information on the case through an international anti-drug collaboration mechanism.
The information helped Malaysian authorities at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Wednesday discover 254kg of ketamine hidden in a shipment of clothes headed for Taiwan, Lee said.
The market value of the drugs is about NT$440 million (US$14.54 million), Lee said.
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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