The Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) arrested two men yesterday believed to be the masterminds behind a cross-border car-theft ring that shipped vehicles to Southeast Asia and sold them there.
After months of investigations, bureau investigators, backed up by police from Taoyuan County and Taipei City, raided the homes of Chou Cheng-hsu (周政旭) in Taoyuan and Cheng Fu-hsiang (鄭富翔) in Taipei late Monday night and arrested the pair on charges of fraud and theft.
Investigators say they have evidence showing that Chou, 26, and Cheng, 42, operated a ring that specialized in stealing new Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Toyota Camry cars and shipping them to Southeast Asia.
Officials said the arrest of the pair should help stem the trade in cross-border car theft and sales.
CIB officials said members of the ring had a tight network whereby the individuals responsible for stealing, loading containers, shipping and overseas sales did not know each other.
Last August, the bureau retrieved 12 stolen Toyota Camry cars from Singapore through the joint efforts of police, customs and immigration authorities from the two countries.
The bureau was tipped off last July that a car-theft ring was planning to ship stolen cars to Thailand and Cambodia via Singapore.
After scrutinizing a large stack of loading documents, shipping firms' data and some customs-clearance reports, investigators uncovered two containers holding eight new Camrys at a container terminal at Keelung Harbor in late July.
They also discovered that three other containers holding 12 stolen cars had been shipped to Singapore's Keepel Port.
The bureau asked Singaporean customs to assist in intercepting the containers and sent officers to the city-state to arrange for shipment of the cars back to Taiwan.
According to investigations, the 20 new Camrys were stolen in Tainan, Taichung, Hsinchu and Taoyuan between July 4 and July 9 last year.
Reports also said that many Mercedes-Benz models were stolen and packed into containers heading to China.
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