Authorities arrested a couple after raiding a home where illegal drugs were being manufactured, while a man carrying amphetamines on a flight to Penghu was detained in a separate incident, Criminal Investigation Bureau officials said yesterday.
Authorities raided a residence at a building in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) last week and found narcotics mixed with coffee powder, known locally as “narcotic coffee,” along with other illegal drugs, the bureau said.
It took a week for tests of the substances to be completed, it said.
Photo: CNA
Officials arrested a husband and wife — a 27-year-old man surnamed Fang (房) and a 31-year-old woman surnamed Ma (馬), it said.
Huang Wen-tsun (黃文圳), squadron leader of the bureau’s Third Investigation Corps, said that investigators seized 118 pouches of narcotic coffee, 20 packages of jelly candy containing narcotics, and varying amounts of Erimin, ketamine and cannabis substances during the raid.
“Background checks indicate that Fang is a member of the Bamboo Union,” Huang said.
“The couple used their home as an assembly and packaging center for the illegal drugs, as well as a distribution center, where people came to buy the drugs,” Huang said.
Fang is to be charged for breaches of the Narcotics Hazard Prevention Act (毒品危害防制條例), while the investigation continues to verify his wife’s role in the illegal trade of narcotics, Huang said.
Huang said other evidence seized included machinery for grinding and mixing narcotics, scales, and packaging and labeling devices.
In a separate case, aviation police at Tainan Airport said they stopped a 28-year-old man going through a security check and found 53 pouches of drugs taped to his chest.
Preliminary tests at the airport showed the packages contained 516g of amphetamines, police said.
Police said that the suspect was likely trafficking drugs between Tainan and the outlying islands.
The man denied he was trafficking drugs, saying he was going to Penghu for a five-day tour and that he bought the drugs, which cost NT$10,000 (US$324), for personal use, police said.
In Taitung County on Wednesday, police said they raided a suspected cannabis plantation operated by two local residents.
Taitung prosecutors said it was one of the biggest cannabis plantation in the nation, with 794 plants up to 2m tall grown on 0.4 hectares of land, with an estimated street value of NT$230 million.
One of the two suspects, a man surnamed Chang (張), was quoted as saying that he rented the land from its owner six months ago and that the plants had grown up to 2m tall with just four months of cultivation.
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