Authorities in Yunlin County yesterday charged 95 Taiwanese and Chinese, led by a former village warden, after completing a four-month investigation into an alleged human-trafficking ring.
The Yunlin District Prosecutors’ Office said the 95 were arraigned on several charges, including human trafficking and falsifying documents for fake marriages, with Lin Hsi-chi (林錫亓), former warden of Raoping Village (饒平) in Cihtong Township (莿桐), named as the suspected mastermind.
Yunlin County chief prosecutor Kuo Chih-ming (郭志明) said Lin is suspected of organizing the human trafficking ring with the help of five friends, including a woman surnamed Yang (楊), and using fraudulent documents to bring 29 “Chinese female spouses” to Taiwan.
Photo: Liao Shu-ling, Taipei Times
After the women arrived in Taiwan, Lin and the other suspects profited by blackmailing the women and having them work as hostesses in bars or prostitutes in central Taiwan, Kuo said.
“The prosecutors will ask the court to hand out heavy sentences against Lin and his cohorts, because they have undermined national security, created social distress and harmed Taiwan’s international image,” Kuo said.
He said that Lin began the matchmaking scams in 2011, in which he paid Taiwanese men to marry Chinese women. A total of 29 fake marriages were arranged.
“Lin and his cohorts were also loan shark operators. When debtors could not pay back the high interest that he charged, Lin pressured them to enter into fake marriages with the Chinese women,” Kuo added.
“A number of victims were already married, but to pay back their debt, they were forced to divorce their wives. Then handlers from the racketing team would take them to China to meet the women and get married there,” Kuo said.
Prosecutors said the human-trafficking racket even had a guidebook and provided the women with lessons and instructions on how to deal with Taiwan’s customs officers when questioned about the legitimacy of their marriages, and how to answer when asked for details about their personal lives and their fake husbands’ daily habits.
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