Former Tainan County council speaker Wu Chien-pao (吳健保), who fled to the Philippines in 2014 after being convicted of match fixing, was extradited to Taiwan yesterday.
Wu, 69, was escorted on board a China Airlines flight from Manila and arrived at the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport at about 1pm, putting an end to more than four years as a fugitive.
As Wu had been held in a cell where a US inmate is suspected to have tuberculosis, he would be subjected to a series of screenings after entering Taiwan, said Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁), deputy commander of the Criminal Investigation Bureau’s 8th Investigation Brigade.
Photo: Tony Yao, Taipei Times
Formerly a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) member, Wu was sentenced in August 2014 by the Taiwan High Court to five years and five months in prison for intimidation and fraud.
He was indicted on charges of fixing Chinese Professional Baseball League games by colluding with illegal gambling syndicates.
Wu was listed as a fugitive after he failed to report to the authorities to serve his prison term later that year.
After receiving an anonymous tip about Wu’s whereabouts last year, the Criminal Investigation Bureau teamed up with its Philippine counterpart and apprehended Wu at a villa in Subic Bay on Jan. 16.
Collaborations between law enforcement officers from Taipei and Manila have led to the arrests of several criminals since the two sides signed a memorandum of understanding on combating transnational crimes in March 2017.
In July last year, former Ozamiz City councilor Ricardo Parojinog, who was wanted in the Philippines for drug trafficking, was arrested in a raid in Pingtung County.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte had offered a reward of 5 million pesos (US$95,374) for the arrest of Parojinog, who was also allegedly involved in several other serious crimes.
Two months later, Philippine authorities helped capture Oren Shlomo Mayer, an Israeli American listed as a suspect in the murder and dismemberment of Canadian Sanjay Ryan Ramgahan in New Taipei City’s Yonghe District (永和) in August last year.
Additional reporting by Chen En-hui
Taiwanese actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has died of pneumonia at the age of 48 while on a trip to Japan, where she contracted influenza during the Lunar New Year holiday, her sister confirmed today through an agent. "Our whole family came to Japan for a trip, and my dearest and most kindhearted sister Barbie Hsu died of influenza-induced pneumonia and unfortunately left us," Hsu's sister and talk show hostess Dee Hsu (徐熙娣) said. "I was grateful to be her sister in this life and that we got to care for and spend time with each other. I will always be grateful to
REMINDER: Of the 6.78 million doses of flu vaccine Taiwan purchased for this flu season, about 200,000 are still available, an official said, following Big S’ death As news broke of the death of Taiwanese actress and singer Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛), also known as Big S (大S), from severe flu complications, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and doctors yesterday urged people at high risk to get vaccinated and be alert to signs of severe illness. Hsu’s family yesterday confirmed that the actress died on a family holiday in Japan due to pneumonia during the Lunar New Year holiday. CDC Deputy Director-General Tseng Shu-hui (曾淑慧) told an impromptu news conference that hospital visits for flu-like illnesses from Jan. 19 to Jan. 25 reached 162,352 — the highest
COMBINING FORCES: The 66th Marine Brigade would support the 202nd Military Police Command in its defense of Taipei against ‘decapitation strikes,’ a source said The Marine Corps has deployed more than 100 soldiers and officers of the 66th Marine Brigade to Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) as part of an effort to bolster defenses around the capital, a source with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. Two weeks ago, a military source said that the Ministry of National Defense ordered the Marine Corps to increase soldier deployments in the Taipei area. The 66th Marine Brigade has been tasked with protecting key areas in Taipei, with the 202nd Military Police Command also continuing to defend the capital. That came after a 2017 decision by the ministry to station
PETITIONS: A Democratic Progressive Party official quoted President William Lai as saying that civil society groups are organizing the recall drives at the grassroots level Some civil society groups yesterday announced that they have collected enough signatures to pass the first-stage threshold to initiate a recall vote against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators in 18 constituencies nationwide, saying that they would submit the signatures to the Central Election Commission (CEC) today. They also said that they expected to pass the threshold in eight more constituencies in the coming days, meaning the number of KMT legislators facing a recall vote could reach 26. The groups set up stations to collect signatures at local marketplaces and busy commercial districts. The legislators their petition drives target include Fu