Police officials yesterday said they would crack down on several major gangs following a shooting on Friday in which a dozen bullets were fired from an automatic weapon at Taipei’s Songshan Cultural and Creative Park.
The crackdown was aimed at the Pine Union (松聯幫) and Niupu (牛埔幫) gang, two criminal organizations said to be involved in the shooting, which arose following financial disputes involving Fubon Land Co (富邦建設), National Police Agency director-general Chen Chia-chin (陳家欽) said.
Chen’s main concern is to ensure public safety and uphold the law, he said, adding that it was the second shooting incident within three months that is allegedly connected to Fubon Land, which has its corporate headquarters at the creative park.
Police arrested 38-year-old suspect Lin Chih-yuan (林志遠) at the Tainan High-Speed Rail Station, after they traced his movements using surveillance cameras.
Police said they found a Skorpion vz. 61 submachine gun and two clips with a total of 16 bullets, and quoted Lin as saying during questioning that a friend had promised to pay NT$100,000 for the job.
According to police, Lin said he could not remember how many bullets were fired and that he only fired into the air as a warning.
Based on three bullets found at the scene and eight casings found inside a taxi Lin used to leave the site of the incident, at least 11 shots were fired, police said.
Investigators said Friday’s shooting was related to an incident in November last year for which Weng Chi-yuan (翁啟源), 29, was arrested.
Weng posed as a deliveryman to enter the Fubon Land office, where he fired one shot into the ceiling and said it was a warning to the company, they said.
Fubon Land has been embroiled in gang violence and financial disputes surrounding two real-estate development projects in Taipei’s Zhongshan (中山) and Xinyi (信義) districts, they said.
Fubon Land subcontracted construction and civil engineering work for the two plots to other companies, investigators said.
The Pine Union and Niupu gangs tried to muscle in and get in on the action, but their advances were allegedly turned down by the company, the investigators said, adding that the gangs’ bosses hired Weng and Lin to shoot at the company to force cooperation.
Fubon Land yesterday in a statement denied that it had subcontracted work on the two real-estate projects, but acknowledged that there had been provocations by unknown groups.
“The Fubon Land development projects were given to a general contractor, who decides about subcontracting to other companies with the necessary expertise in construction, civil engineering and the like. As such, Fubon Land is not involved in the subcontracting process,” the statement read.
“The general contractor for the land development project in Taipei’s Zhongshan district is Chien Kuo Construction Co (建國工程); our company was not involved in the subcontracting process for the project,” the company said.
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