Police and Coast Guard Administration (CGA) personnel have made the biggest drug bust in Kinmen County’s history, the Fuchien Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office said on Tuesday.
Chief Prosecutor Wu Wen-cheng (吳文城) told a news conference that 498.99kg of ephedrine, enough to manufacture 400kg of methamphetamine, was seized in the county, less than 10km from China.
The seized drugs had an estimated market value of NT$500 million (US$16.3 million), Wu said.
Photo: CNA
The Category 4 drugs — the lowest in Taiwan’s “four-tier” categorization — were seized on July 28 by a joint CGA and police task force, he said.
The drugs were hidden between bed boards for spring beds on a truck in Chienshui Port in Liaoluo Bay, Wu said.
The main suspect, surnamed Cheng (鄭), was caught trying to flee the scene after trying to ship the drugs from the Port of Taipei on Taiwan proper, Wu added.
Cheng’s detention led to the arrest of four other suspects — Chen Kuei-nan (陳奎南), Hsu Cheng-hung (許證宏), Liao Pin-jui (廖品睿) and Tsai Yu-ching (蔡育卿).
Tsai is accused of ordering the bed boards and renting the truck to transport them.
An initial investigation found that the four suspects illegally sailed on a boat from Kinmen on the night of July 24 to the Dadeng area off China’s Fujian Province, where they concealed 20 bags of ephedrine between the boards stored in a secret cabin on the ship before returning to Kinmen, Wu said.
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