Eight military personnel posted at Ching Chuan Kang Air Base in Taichung have tested positive for drugs in a second round of tests conducted as part of an investigation into the discovery of illicit drugs at the base, a prosecutor said yesterday.
Authorities tested 2,303 military personnel at the base after 53 packages of amphetamines and ketamine — Category 2 and Category 3 narcotics respectively — and drug paraphernalia were found on the base since Monday last week.
A total of 27 service personnel tested positive for drug use in initial tests and had to undergo a second round of tests.
Photo: Yang Cheng-chun, Taipei Times
In the second-round tests, eight people tested positive for Category 1 narcotics, which include morphine, heroin and opium, Taichung District Prosecutors’ Office chief prosecutor Kuo Ching-tung (郭景東) said.
No pilots are among the eight military personnel, he added.
If illicit drug use is confirmed, first-time offenders would be sent to a drug rehabilitation program, while anyone found reoffending would be prosecuted in accordance with the Narcotics Hazard Prevention Act (毒品危害防制條例), Kuo said.
Kuo said an examination of footage from the base is under way. Phone and communications records are also to be investigated.
The eight people who tested positive in the second round are suspected of using Category 1 drugs, but the drugs found on the base are Category 2 and Category 3 drugs, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Wang Ding-yu (王定宇) said.
Wang said that the people who dropped the packages might not be the same people who have tested positive for drug use, adding that investigators must not limit the scope of their probe or try to resolve the case hastily.
Additional reporting by Aaron Tu
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