Taipei police yesterday gatecrashed the birthday bash of a gangster who thought a five-star hotel would be the perfect cover for an ecstasy party.
Chen Chien-chou (陳建舟), a 28-year-old member of the Pei Lien Gang (北聯幫), and 42 other partygoers were arrested by officers after they broke up Chen's drugs-fuelled party at the Grand Hyatt Taipei.
"It is my birthday. I thought it would be safe to have the party at a hotel, but obviously I was wrong," Chen said at the Taipei City Police Department's Hsinyi Precinct.
PHOTO: FANG PIN-CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
Participants told the police that they had to pay NT$500 each to join the party, although they had been all invited by Chen.
Officers at the precinct received reports from "reliable sources" on Monday night that an ecstasy party was being held in room 2443 of the Grand Hyatt.
"We wanted to make sure that it was really an ecstasy party before we went in because it was a five-star hotel," said Hsueh Ching-lien (
Officers first secured the 24th floor of the hotel. When they entered the room around 3am, they discovered 30 men and 13 women, ranging in age from 18 to 30, as well as 179 ecstasy pills, 30 bottles of Ketamine Hydrochloride, also known as Special K, and 13 marijuana cigarettes.
Hsueh said that officers entered in time to save a woman from being gangraped.
"Her panties had been ripped off and she was surrounded by 15 men," Hsueh said. "However, when we took her back to the station, she was not able to remember what drugs she had taken and what had happened to her."
Grand Hyatt spokeswoman Lee Chia-yen (李佳燕) said that the hotel's security guards had not noticed anything unusual in their patrols.
Lee said that Chen had made his reservation for the 30-ping, NT$9,000-a night-room through the proper channels.
"However, we will cooperate with the police's investigation and will increase our security measures and management," she said.
It was the second time that an ecstasy party has been busted at the Grand Hyatt.
Former Chinese Nationalist Party legislator Huang Hsien-chou (黃顯洲) held a drug party in room 2526 on Dec. 27, 2001.
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