Police yesterday warned against new forms of synthetic drugs and the dangers of mixing them as they stepped up controls on illegal drugs.
New Taipei City police officers last week carried out nighttime spot checks at Internet cafes and entertainment venues in Banciao District (板橋).
During a check at an Internet cafe, one of the patrons, a man surnamed Chang (張), became nervous when asked about the contents of his tote bag, Jiangcui Police Chief Fang Wen-chun (方文村) said.
Police found pouches containing five different kinds of illegal drugs in Chang’s bag, Fang said, adding that the 35-year-old had prior drug convictions and would be charged.
Preliminary testing showed the pouches contained cannabis, MDMA — commonly known as ecstasy — amphetamine, nimetazepam and a new pink-colored MDMA-derived synthetic drug, commonly known as “plum tablets” in Taiwan, Fang said.
During questioning, Chang said that he had intended to mix the drugs to get high while playing video games, police said.
In related news, Taoyuan police acting on a tip-off yesterday detained a suspect surnamed Hsu (許), who was allegedly caught in the act of selling amphetamine to two people on a stairwell.
All three were detained for questioning, officer Chen Chien-hao (陳建豪) said.
Police found two pouches weighing 18g each on the stairwell and a preliminary test showed that they contained amphetamine powder, Chen said, adding that background checks revealed that all three suspects had prior drug convictions.
Police said that Hsu, 36, had a drug supplier and was selling amphetamine to the two men, and that all three would be charged with contravening the Narcotics Hazard Prevention Act (毒品危害防制條例).
Meanwhile, Taichung authorities on Saturday said they had reason to believe that two men who were found dead in an apartment the previous day had died of drug overdoses.
Neighbors had called the police to open the apartment’s door after noticing a foul odor coming from the inside, police said.
Officers found the bodies of the men, surnamed Lin (林), 56, and Lee (李), 62, in the apartment, they said.
A preliminary investigation ruled out foul play, as there were no signs of fighting or external injuries, police said, adding that they did not find any or evidence of gas poisoning or suicide.
However, they found two pairs of needles and syringes, police added.
Investigators on Saturday said samples were taken from the residues inside the syringes, adding that it is likely that the men, who also had prior drug convictions, died after injecting themselves with a mix of synthetic drugs.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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