Law enforcement agents seized 79kg of high-grade heroin and arrested six suspects during a raid in Keelung yesterday morning.
The initial investigation showed that the heroin, with a market value of nearly NT$200 million (US$5.63 million), was smuggled from North Korea and that a Taiwanese ship was then arranged to pick up the drugs and smuggle them into Taiwan.
But if the North Koreans were involved in the deal, they might have only been transporting the drugs. The heroin bricks confiscated in the bust were stamped with a red label that said in Chinese characters, "Double Lion Global," a brand from China's southwestern Yunnan province, one investigator said on condition of anonymity.
PHOTO: CHEN CHENG-CHANG, TAIPEI TIMES
"We're still investigating how they might have been moved from Yunnan to North Korea," he said.
Criminal Investigation Bureau agents said they were tipped off early this year that a drug ring masterminded by Hsiao Yao-ming (
Investigators said the ring purchased a fishing boat, the Shun Chi Fa (
Investigators noted that the Shun Chi Fa set off from Wanli (萬里), Taipei County, for North Korea on June 16. Two weeks later, a Keelung-registered ship, the Hsieh Mang No. 18 (協滿十八號), also set out to sea.
The police and coast guard had been searching the northern sea shore around the clock over the past few days, and on Monday night they spotted two fishing boats that turned out to be transporting the drugs at sea, north of Pengchiayi, which lies north off Keelung.
After the two ships entered the harbor in Keelung, police discovered two men, Tu Wen-hsien (
Police, in concerted action, also arrested Lu Kee-wan (
In March, the US State Department issued a report that accused North Korea of drug trafficking and said it was viewed as a significant problem for Japan and Taiwan.
North Korea has said it does not peddle drugs and called the US report an attempt to "stifle" the reclusive communist state.
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