Police have rescued 32 people who were kidnapped and forcibly detained by a criminal ring in Taoyuan, while subsequent searches found the bodies of three people who were killed after being tortured.
Police said that eight suspected members of the ring were arrested during the raid on Thursday, and evidence and telephone records indicated that they belonged to the same criminal ring that was raided in New Taipei City’s Tamsui District (淡水) on Tuesday.
Police rescued 26 people and captured eight suspects in that raid.
Photo: CNA
The torture practices, the three corpses and the use of handcuffs and other torture devices have prompted police and local media to describe it as a “Cambodia-style kidnapping and fraud operation.”
During the raid in Taoyuan’s Jhongli District (中壢), police seized handcuffs, plastic wrist binders, electroshock weapons, metal rods and other devices believed to have been used to torture the victims, all of whom had bruises and injuries from being beaten, while some had also been burned with cigarettes, the New Taipei City Police Department Criminal Investigation Corps told a news conference yesterday.
Police said they recovered the bodies of three victims — two men and a woman — in a mountainous area of Taoyuan’s Kueishan District (龜山) and in Nantou County.
According to testimony and witness accounts, one victim allegedly was beaten and suffered serious injuries resulting in death, another reportedly could not bear the torture and tried to escape, and was killed when jumping out of a window. The third allegedly died of an overdose, after gang members fed them narcotics to incapacitate them and prevent them from fleeing.
Police said they were investigating if the criminal ring had any connections to known organized crime syndicates.
The 32 victims rescued were emaciated with signs of malnutrition after they were only permitted to eat one meal of instant noodles per day, police said, adding that the victims were taken to hospitals for emergency treatment.
Evidence indicated that the Taoyuan ring was instructed by Lu Cheng-yi (呂政儀), who was arrested in the Tamsui raid on Tuesday, police said.
Lu and the others arrested are facing charges of murder, fraud, assault causing injury, illegal confinement and related offenses, police said.
Victims said they applied for high-paying jobs and were invited to the buildings in Tamsui and Taoyuan, but were kidnapped and forced to hand over their IDs and personal belongings, including bank account books.
They were then ordered to make telephone calls as part of a fraud operation, they said.
MORE VISITORS: The Tourism Administration said that it is seeing positive prospects in its efforts to expand the tourism market in North America and Europe Taiwan has been ranked as the cheapest place in the world to travel to this year, based on a list recommended by NerdWallet. The San Francisco-based personal finance company said that Taiwan topped the list of 16 nations it chose for budget travelers because US tourists do not need visas and travelers can easily have a good meal for less than US$10. A bus ride in Taipei costs just under US$0.50, while subway rides start at US$0.60, the firm said, adding that public transportation in Taiwan is easy to navigate. The firm also called Taiwan a “food lover’s paradise,” citing inexpensive breakfast stalls
TRADE: A mandatory declaration of origin for manufactured goods bound for the US is to take effect on May 7 to block China from exploiting Taiwan’s trade channels All products manufactured in Taiwan and exported to the US must include a signed declaration of origin starting on May 7, the Bureau of Foreign Trade announced yesterday. US President Donald Trump on April 2 imposed a 32 percent tariff on imports from Taiwan, but one week later announced a 90-day pause on its implementation. However, a universal 10 percent tariff was immediately applied to most imports from around the world. On April 12, the Trump administration further exempted computers, smartphones and semiconductors from the new tariffs. In response, President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration has introduced a series of countermeasures to support affected
CROSS-STRAIT: The vast majority of Taiwanese support maintaining the ‘status quo,’ while concern is rising about Beijing’s influence operations More than eight out of 10 Taiwanese reject Beijing’s “one country, two systems” framework for cross-strait relations, according to a survey released by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday. The MAC’s latest quarterly survey found that 84.4 percent of respondents opposed Beijing’s “one country, two systems” formula for handling cross-strait relations — a figure consistent with past polling. Over the past three years, opposition to the framework has remained high, ranging from a low of 83.6 percent in April 2023 to a peak of 89.6 percent in April last year. In the most recent poll, 82.5 percent also rejected China’s
PLUGGING HOLES: The amendments would bring the legislation in line with systems found in other countries such as Japan and the US, Legislator Chen Kuan-ting said Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷) has proposed amending national security legislation amid a spate of espionage cases. Potential gaps in security vetting procedures for personnel with access to sensitive information prompted him to propose the amendments, which would introduce changes to Article 14 of the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法), Chen said yesterday. The proposal, which aims to enhance interagency vetting procedures and reduce the risk of classified information leaks, would establish a comprehensive security clearance system in Taiwan, he said. The amendment would require character and loyalty checks for civil servants and intelligence personnel prior to
RSS