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.
NO FREE LUNCH: Taiwanese joining the trips to China met TAO and United Front Work officials who urged them to vote for candidates who support closer ties with Beijing The Ciaotou Prosecutors’ Office in Kaohsiung yesterday released two suspects on bail who have been accused of recruiting Taiwanese to join tours to China funded by Beijing and in which they were urged to vote for pan-blue candidates in January’s presidential and legislative elections. The pan-blue camp generally refers to the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), the People First Party, the New Party and the Young China Party, which support closer relations with China. Prosecutors said that a man, surnamed Cheng (鄭), and a woman, surnamed Yeh (葉), who are members of the China Pan-Blue Association, recruited Taiwanese tourists to join tours arranged
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus yesterday slammed a proposal by New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜), the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential candidate, to permit a “significant number” of Chinese students to study and work in Taiwan, saying it would be detrimental to young Taiwanese. At an event on Monday hosted by nine major industrial and business groups, Hou said that if elected, he would reinitiate cross-strait dialogue on the premise that Taiwan’s dignity would not be compromised and that the talks would be held in good faith. The talks would include lifting a ban on Chinese tour groups and
PEACE AND STABILITY: ‘Taiwan can be of tremendous value’ in building resilient supply chains, President Tsai Ing-wen said, as she encouraged closer ties with foreign businesses A Chinese invasion of Taiwan is unlikely for the time being due to the internal challenges and international pressure that China is facing, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told the New York Times in an interview shown on Wednesday. “My thought is that perhaps this is not a time for them [China] to consider a major invasion of Taiwan,” Tsai said in a prerecorded interview for the DealBook Summit held by the newspaper on Wednesday. Beijing’s leadership is presently “overwhelmed by its internal challenges” on economic, financial and political grounds, while the international community “has made it loud and clear that war is
COUNTER DISINFORMATION: More engagement and media literacy are needed to push back against misinformation and claims that the US is an unreliable partner, the AIT director said The US is “confident” that Taiwan does not face an imminent threat of a Chinese invasion, American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director Sandra Oudkirk told a US public radio show, adding that Washington remains committed to defensively arming the nation. She made the comment during an interview on All Things Considered, broadcast on Friday on US-based National Public Radio. “There is an important distinction between making plans and training troops, and getting ready to do something,” Oudkirk said, on whether she thinks Beijing plans to attack Taiwan in the near future. Chinese officials have told Washington that “their preference is for peaceful reunification,
RSS