Minister of the Interior Yeh Jiunn-rong (葉俊榮) yesterday praised law enforcement agencies for their efforts in a major nationwide initiative to crack down on extortion gangs, underground syndicates and gambling operations that has resulted in the apprehension of more than 1,500 suspected criminals, partially in response to violent incidents at public hearings.
“We will have ‘zero tolerance’ for gang violence. The government must establish its authority in upholding public safety and clamp down on criminal activities,” Yeh said at the Criminal Investigation Bureau’s headquarters in Taipei, while surveying the results of coordinated raids.
“Groups of gangsters were identified at several recent protests that turned violent, disrupting public hearings on important issues,” Yeh said. “Evidence showed that they posed as civic organizations, but they have followed their own political agenda of interfering and subverting the democratic process.”
Photo: Chen Yi-yun, Taipei
“We must prosecute them to the full extent of the law to maintain the safety and well-being of our society,” he added.
The crackdown has been a significant success, bureau Deputy Director Chi Ming-mo (紀明謀) said, adding that authorities had arrested six high-ranking members of two of the nation’s most notorious organized crime groups, including Chen Tzu-chun (陳子俊) of the Four Seas Gang (四海幫) and Chen Mu-sen (陳木森) of the Bamboo Union (竹聯幫).
The operation involved 6,470 police officers in raids of 164 locations linked to gang activities, Chi said, adding that a total of 108 suspects had been arrested.
Photo: courtesy of New Taipei City Police Department
A total of 5,889 police officers participated in other operations in all of the nation’s counties and major cities that targeted gambling dens and betting pools, major sources of income for Taiwanese gangsters and organized crime groups, officials said.
Those raids resulted in the capture of 106 suspects from illegal gambling dens, 50 from illegal sports betting pools, 692 from underground Mark Six lottery operations, 513 at illegal casinos and 79 from other forms of gambling activities, they added.
Police apprehended members of two large online gambling networks, Tao Gin (淘金網), operator of w3.tg777.net, and Jiou Zhou Entertainment (九州娛樂網), which runs tx5588.com, both of which allegedly received bets from people in Taiwan, China, Hong Kong and Macau, officials said.
Accompanying Yeh at the event was National Police Agency Director-General Chen Kuo-en (陳國恩).
A number of lawmakers and pundits have called for his removal over a perceived neglect of his duties, a lack of police initiatives to prevent violence at public hearings and not actively pursuing the capture of known criminals after such incidents.
An Emirates flight from Dubai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport yesterday afternoon, the first service of the airline since the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran on Saturday. Flight EK366 took off from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at 3:51am yesterday and landed at 4:02pm before taxiing to the airport’s D6 gate at Terminal 2 at 4:08pm, data from the airport and FlightAware, a global flight tracking site, showed. Of the 501 passengers on the flight, 275 were Taiwanese, including 96 group tour travelers, the data showed. Tourism Administration Deputy Director-General Huang He-ting (黃荷婷) greeted Taiwanese passengers at the airport and
POSSIBILITIES EMERGE: With Taiwan’s victory and Japan’s narrow win over Australia, Taiwan now have a chance to advance if South Korea also beat the Aussies Taiwan has high hopes that the national baseball team would advance to the World Baseball Classic (WBC) quarter-finals after clinching a crucial 5-4 victory over South Korea in a nail-biting extra-inning game at the Tokyo Dome yesterday. Boosted by three home runs — two solo shots by Yu Chang (張育成) and Cheng Tsung-che (鄭宗哲) and a two-run homer by Stuart Fairchild — the triumph gave Taiwan a much-needed second victory in the five-team Pool C, where only the top two finishers would advance to the knockout stage in Miami, Florida. Entering extra innings with the game tied at four apiece, Taiwan scored
MISSION OF PEACE: The foreign minister urged Beijing to respect Taiwan’s existence as an independent nation, and work together to ensure peace and stability in the region Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday rejected Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi’s (王毅) comments about Taiwan, criticizing China as a “troublemaker” in the international community and a disruptor of cross-strait peace. Speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of the Chinese National People’s Congress, Wang said that Taiwan has always been a territory of China and that it would be impossible for it to become its own country. The “return” of Taiwan to China was the natural outcome of the Chinese people’s resistance against Japan in World War II, and that any pursuit of independence was “doomed
One person was killed and another seven injured today when a tourist shuttle bus plunged 30m to 40m down a ravine in Nantou County, the Tourism Administration said. The bus is suspected to have suddenly accelerated out of control near the flower center of the Sun-Link-Sea Forest Recreation Area, a popular attraction during cherry blossom season. Of the eight onboard, a 66-year-old man was killed, four were seriously injured and three sustained minor injuries, including the driver. The Nantou County Police Department said it received a report of the incident at 12:15pm and dispatched seven teams to assist. All surviving passengers have been transferred
RSS