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.
Three cases of Candida auris, a fungus that can cause a yeast infection known as candidiasis in humans, have been reported in Taiwan over the past few years, but they did not display drug resistance, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said yesterday. Lo made the statement at a news conference in Taipei, one day after the Washington Post reported that the potentially deadly fungus is spreading in US hospitals. The fungus was first discovered in Japan in 2009 and poses a danger to immunocompromised people, with an estimated mortality rate of 30 to 60 percent, Lo
‘COINCIDENCE’: The former president should keep in mind local and global response to his actions and abide by the law to safeguard national interests, the MAC said The Presidential Office yesterday confirmed that it has received an application from former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to visit China next week and would be discussing his security detail. “As the travel restrictions on former president Ma have expired, we respect his plan to pay respect to his ancestors in China,” Presidential Office spokeswoman Lin Yu-chan (林聿禪) said. “We will review his travel plan and consult concerned agencies to assist him in arranging his security detail.” “We also hope that Ma, as a former commander in chief of Taiwan, acts in a manner that aligns with national interests and does not hurt
‘DIRE’: Taiwan would not engage in ‘dollar diplomacy,’ the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, after China reportedly offered Honduras up to US$3 billion to establish relations The government yesterday recalled its ambassador to Honduras after the Central American nation sent its foreign minister to China, signaling that it would sever diplomatic ties with Taiwan. Suspicions concerning ties with Honduras are rife after Honduran President Xiomara Castro on Tuesday last week wrote on Twitter that her country would pursue diplomatic ties with China. Honduran Minister of Foreign Affairs Eduardo Enrique Reina traveled to China on Wednesday “to promote efforts for the establishment of diplomatic relations” on instructions from Castro, Reuters yesterday quoted Honduran presidential spokesman Ivis Alvarado as saying. The government “has decided to immediately recall the ambassador to Honduras
‘NOTHING NEW’: China should not use Tsai Ing-wen’s transits through the US as a pretext to step up aggressive activity in the Taiwan Strait, a Washington official said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) is to stop over in the US on her way to and from Central America next week, but her administration would not confirm a meeting with US House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Tsai’s delegation is to leave Taipei on Wednesday next week and stop over in New York City, Presidential Office spokeswoman Lin Yu-chan (林聿禪) told a news conference yesterday. Tsai is then to head to Guatemala on Saturday next week for talks with Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei and to meet with Taiwanese expatriates, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. On April 3, Tsai is scheduled to travel
RSS