A New Taipei City resident in his 30s was arrested earlier this month for allegedly smuggling totoaba swim bladders from Mexico to sell in China, as part of a months-long probe into an international smuggling ring that began with a tip-off from the FBI, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said yesterday.
Local police and customs authorities seized 19kg of totoaba swim bladders between July 28 and Aug. 12 that had a black market price of about US$900,000, the CIB told a news conference at its office in Taipei.
CIB Deputy Commissioner Liao Hsun-cheng (廖訓誠) inspected the confiscated haul, while FBI Legal Attache Office representative in Taiwan Nicolas Garcia made a rare public appearance.
Photo: Yao Yueh-hung, Taipei Times
Liao said that the main haul was seized at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Aug. 10 — 161 dried swim bladders that arrived from the US by air cargo — and CIB units followed up with searches.
The detained suspect, surnamed Yao (姚), who works in the customs brokerage business, is alleged to be the main Taiwanese member of the smuggling operation.
CIB officials said that their investigation began after they received a report from the FBI last month that the smugglers purchased the dried swim bladders of totoaba — an endangered species — and sent them via international express courier delivery services from Mexico, destined for China.
The trade in totoaba swim bladders has been illegal since 1976, when the giant fish, endemic to the Gulf of California in Mexico, was added to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
CIB officials said that Mexican poachers catch the fish, dry the swim bladders and then smuggle them to the US West Coast, where Chinese gangs send them via air mail or courier packages to Taiwan.
The bladders are then sent from Kinmen to Xiamen, in China’s Fujian Province, via the “small three links,” before moving on to Guangzhou, the CIB said.
Yao faces charges of contravening the Wildlife Conservation Act (野生動物保育法) and the Smuggling Penalty Act (懲治走私條例).
Garcia thanked the CIB and Customs Administration on behalf of the FBI and the US Fish and Wildlife Service for their efforts.
ONGOING PROBE: A former Military Intelligence Bureau colonel, major general and another colonel, as well as five other people, have been questioned by prosecutors The Taipei District Court yesterday ordered that a retired colonel from the Military Intelligence Bureau (MIB) calling himself Taiwan’s “first special agent” be detained and held incommunicado as part of an ongoing investigation into espionage allegations targeting at least three former bureau officials. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office was seeking to detain former MIB colonel Chang Chao-jan (張超然) over his alleged involvement in introducing retired agents to Chinese national security authorities and passing confidential documents to China. Chang’s actions, if proven, would contravene the National Security Act (國家安全法), which carries a prison term of three to 10 years, and the National Intelligence
The US House of Representatives’ China Task Force, launched by Republicans earlier this year, yesterday proposed the China task force act, a package of 137 pieces of legislation, seven of which involve Taiwan, in the hope of getting it passed before the 117th US Congress convenes on Jan. 3. The act encompasses a wide range of issues, including combatting Beijing’s influence around the globe, establishing the US’ dominance in determining 5G network standards and means for bringing UN members to task for abusing their influence within the UN system. The seven acts involving Taiwan address concerns such as the Taiwan Assurance Act
Chinese health authorities investigating a COVID-19 outbreak have said that they discovered live coronavirus on frozen food packaging, a finding that suggests the virus can survive in cold supply chains. The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention on Saturday said that it had found traces of live COVID-19 on the outer packaging of frozen cod in the eastern city of Qingdao, marking the first time that live coronavirus has been detected on the outside of refrigerated goods. Researchers were investigating the source of a cluster of cases linked to a hospital in Qingdao. Genetic traces had previously been found in samples of
A Chinese soldier apprehended earlier this week by the Indian Army after he strayed across a tense de facto border was on Tuesday night handed back to China, an Indian government source in New Delhi said yesterday. The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) soldier had on Monday been captured in the Demchok area of eastern Ladakh, the Indian Army said in a statement. The Chinese military also released a statement, saying that Corporal Wang Yalong was handed over early yesterday. New Delhi on Monday said that it had detained Wang after he crossed into Indian-controlled territory, while China announced that Wang had gotten
RSS