Police in Tainan yesterday said they arrested an organic farmer who was allegedly selling narcotics to supplement his income.
A 57-year-old man surnamed Hsu (許) was found with pouches containing amphetamines and heroin in his car during a police raid, while four people alleged to have purchased illegal drugs from Hsu were detained for questioning, police officials said.
Hsu told investigators that he had served prison time on drug charges and wanted to start afresh, vowing to never touch drugs again, so he started an organic farm with the help of family members, police said.
However, he found the going difficult due to the low yields of organic fruit, high costs and competition, and the lack of a good sales network, police quoted Hsu as saying.
As he was not making enough money and faced pressure to cover farming expenses, he started using drugs again, Hsu was quoted as saying.
He then returned to selling drugs when his fruit was out of season, police quoted him as saying.
In a separate case, Taichung police yesterday searched an apartment building where they found a man surnamed Huang (黃), 26, and his girlfriend allegedly in possession of pouches of ketamine powder.
Neighbors complained of the smell of ketamine smoke from Huang’s residence, police said.
Suspects in both cases face charges according to the Narcotics Hazard Prevention Act (毒品危害防制條例).
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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