More than 1,200 suspects have been arrested in the latest crackdown on gangsters and criminal activities, the National Police Agency (NPA) said yesterday.
In the past week through Sunday, the nationwide campaign targeting criminals engaged in kidnapping and extortion netted 1,254 arrests, NPA Directorate-General Huang Ming-chao (黃明昭) said.
The suspects were involved in 683 cases of fraud, money scams, loan-related violence and other criminal activities, with about NT$700 million (US$22.5 million) in cash and property assets frozen, he said.
Photo: Yao Yueh-hung, Taipei Times
While background checks are still under way, so far at least 13 cases and 49 suspects seem to have direct ties to Taiwan’s major criminal syndicates, including the Bamboo Union, the Four Seas Gang and the Heavenly Way Alliance, he said.
One of the suspects is a man surnamed Kuo (郭), who allegedly heads a criminal ring in northern Taiwan, police said, adding that they had apprehended eight suspected accomplices and rescued six people in Miaoli’s Tongluo District (銅鑼).
Hsueh Hsien-te (薛先得), captain of the Taipei Police Department’s criminal investigation division, said his unit began an investigation after a Taipei resident reported responding to an online advertisement promising high pay, only to be threatened, blindfolded, confined and beaten when he showed up for an interview.
The man said he was lucky because when the criminals tried to transfer money using his account, it issued an alert about unusual transactions.
The gangsters drove him to an area outside the Taiwan High-Speed Rail’s station in Taichung’s Wurih District (烏日), pushed him out of the car and sped away, the man told police.
The man also reported seeing other captives at the place where he was confined, prompting police to form a special task force to rescue the hostages, Hsueh said.
Police rescued six captives in Tongluo and seized account books and bank cards belonging to the victims, NT$264,300 in cash, drugs including heroin, amphetamine, ketamine and narcotic coffee-mix powder, along with plastic restraints, electroshock guns, air rifles, wooden clubs, blindfolds and other tools, Hsueh said.
GET TO SAFETY: Authorities were scrambling to evacuate nearly 700 people in Hualien County to prepare for overflow from a natural dam formed by a previous typhoon Typhoon Podul yesterday intensified and accelerated as it neared Taiwan, with the impact expected to be felt overnight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, while the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration announced that schools and government offices in most areas of southern and eastern Taiwan would be closed today. The affected regions are Tainan, Kaohsiung and Chiayi City, and Yunlin, Chiayi, Pingtung, Hualien and Taitung counties, as well as the outlying Penghu County. As of 10pm last night, the storm was about 370km east-southeast of Taitung County, moving west-northwest at 27kph, CWA data showed. With a radius of 120km, Podul is carrying maximum sustained
Tropical Storm Podul strengthened into a typhoon at 8pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with a sea warning to be issued late last night or early this morning. As of 8pm, the typhoon was 1,020km east of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving west at 23kph. The storm carried maximum sustained winds of 119kph and gusts reaching 155kph, the CWA said. Based on the tropical storm’s trajectory, a land warning could be issued any time from midday today, it added. CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said Podul is a fast-moving storm that is forecast to bring its heaviest rainfall and strongest
President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday criticized the nuclear energy referendum scheduled for Saturday next week, saying that holding the plebiscite before the government can conduct safety evaluations is a denial of the public’s right to make informed decisions. Lai, who is also the chairman of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), made the comments at the party’s Central Standing Committee meeting at its headquarters in Taipei. ‘NO’ “I will go to the ballot box on Saturday next week to cast a ‘no’ vote, as we all should do,” he said as he called on the public to reject the proposition to reactivate the decommissioned
TALKS CONTINUE: Although an agreement has not been reached with Washington, lowering the tariff from 32 percent to 20 percent is still progress, the vice premier said Taiwan would strive for a better US tariff rate in negotiations, with the goal being not just lowering the current 20-percent tariff rate, but also securing an exemption from tariff stacking, Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君) said yesterday. Cheng made the remarks at a news conference at the Executive Yuan explaining the new US tariffs and the government’s plans for supporting affected industries. US President Donald Trump on July 31 announced a new tariff rate of 20 percent on Taiwan’s exports to the US starting on Thursday last week, and the Office of Trade Negotiations on Friday confirmed that it
RSS