Four men were indicted on Wednesday for trafficking drug-laced squares of paper disguised as postal stamps to the US and South Africa using an express air service.
Prosecutors said the suspected mastermind behind the operation was Kung Ling-hau (孔令豪), 51, with Lin Hsin-cheng (林鑫政), who has a degree in chemical engineering, as his main accomplice.
Kung and Lin began manufacturing two “designer drugs” — MDPBP (a stimulant discovered in the 1960s) and 25B-NBOME (a psychedelic discovered in 2004) — in July last year in a laboratory at Kung’s company in Greater Taichung, prosecutors said.
Photo: Yang Cheng-chun, Taipei Times
The accused soaked stamp-like squares of paper with MDPBP and 25B-NBOME, which were then dried and sold, prosecutors said.
Users place the stamps in their mouth to get high. Prosecutors said such papers are quite popular in dance clubs and bars.
Kung owns a security guard service company, prosecutors said, while Lin made use of his chemical engineering know-how to access information from US Web sites on developing new recreational drugs.
According to the indictment, Lin has a record of arrests for selling illegal magic mushrooms and “yohimbe bark extract,” known as the Viagra of herbal plants, to entertainers in Taipei and to wealthy people in the high-tech industry in the Hsinchu area.
The pair were arrested in January and indicted by prosecutors on Wednesday for violating the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act (藥事法).
The indictment said Kung sold about 4,000 sheets, each containing 25 laced stamps, to customers in the US and South Africa, shipping them by air express.
One US customer, identified only as David, reportedly made more than US$20,000 in profit from selling the drugs.
Kung is also accused of selling 172 sheets to Taiwanese, including 130 sheets that were sold to a man surnamed Chen (陳), and 42 sheets that were sold to a man surnamed Chang (張), who then mailed them to a Taiwanese friend living in South Africa. The customer in South Africa reportedly sold each stamp for between NT$500 and NT$1,500.
Chen and Chang were also indicted on Wednesday.
Both MDPBP and 25B-NBOME are classified as illegal drugs in most countries, and are strictly controlled by the US Food and Drugs Administration, local authorities said.
Taiwan’s Food and Drug Administration said the two chemicals can induce hallucinations, flashbacks, mental psychosis, ecstatic highs, eccentric and deviant behavior, epileptic seizures, violence and even cause death.
EXPRESSING GRATITUDE: Without its Taiwanese partners which are ‘working around the clock,’ Nvidia could not meet AI demand, CEO Jensen Huang said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and US-based artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Nvidia Corp have partnered with each other on silicon photonics development, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said. Speaking with reporters after he met with TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) in Taipei on Friday, Huang said his company was working with the world’s largest contract chipmaker on silicon photonics, but admitted it was unlikely for the cooperation to yield results any time soon, and both sides would need several years to achieve concrete outcomes. To have a stake in the silicon photonics supply chain, TSMC and
IDENTITY: Compared with other platforms, TikTok’s algorithm pushes a ‘disproportionately high ratio’ of pro-China content, a study has found Young Taiwanese are increasingly consuming Chinese content on TikTok, which is changing their views on identity and making them less resistant toward China, researchers and politicians were cited as saying by foreign media. Asked to suggest the best survival strategy for a small country facing a powerful neighbor, students at National Chia-Yi Girls’ Senior High School said “Taiwan must do everything to avoid provoking China into attacking it,” the Financial Times wrote on Friday. Young Taiwanese between the ages of 20 and 24 in the past were the group who most strongly espoused a Taiwanese identity, but that is no longer
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake and several aftershocks battered southern Taiwan early this morning, causing houses and roads to collapse and leaving dozens injured and 50 people isolated in their village. A total of 26 people were reported injured and sent to hospitals due to the earthquake as of late this morning, according to the latest Ministry of Health and Welfare figures. In Sising Village (西興) of Chiayi County's Dapu Township (大埔), the location of the quake's epicenter, severe damage was seen and roads entering the village were blocked, isolating about 50 villagers. Another eight people who were originally trapped inside buildings in Tainan
SHARED VALUES: The US, Taiwan and other allies hope to maintain the cross-strait ‘status quo’ to foster regional prosperity and growth, the former US vice president said Former US vice president Mike Pence yesterday vowed to continue to support US-Taiwan relations, and to defend the security and interests of both countries and the free world. At a meeting with President William Lai (賴清德) at the Presidential Office in Taipei, Pence said that the US and Taiwan enjoy strong and continued friendship based on the shared values of freedom, the rule of law and respect for human rights. Such foundations exceed limitations imposed by geography and culture, said Pence, who is visiting Taiwan for the first time. The US and Taiwan have shared interests, and Americans are increasingly concerned about China’s
RSS