Investigators yesterday announced that they had broken a heroin smuggling case and seized 229kg of heroin, marking the nation’s biggest cargo aircraft heroin smuggling bust.
The Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said its officers yesterday morning seized 600 packages of heroin in a cargo plane at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport with a combined weight of 229kg.
According to the bureau’s estimate, the amount the drugs could have been sold for was about NT$9 billion (US$300 million).
Photo: AFP Criminal Investigation Bureau
The drugs were found hidden in 12 empty stereo speakers, each of which contained 50 packages.
The packages had chocolate spread on them in a ploy to avoid detection by sniffer dogs, the bureau said.
The bureau said seven people had been arrested.
A suspect surnamed Wong (翁), who worked for a cargo transportation company and was familiar with cargo transportation channels, had visited Vietnam and China several times, apparently to handle the illegal drugs, investigators said.
The bureau added that they discovered last year that Wong and other suspects were involved in heroin smuggling operations so investigators began monitoring their actions.
It said investigators discovered that a cargo flight containing a large quantity of heroin would arrive in the country yesterday morning from Vietnam.
The bureau said Taiwanese suspects who reside in China directed Wong and others to conduct the operation.
The bureau said it would ask Chinese authorities to pursue the smuggling ring in China under the Agreement on Jointly Cracking Down on Crime and Mutual Legal Assistance Across the Strait (海峽兩岸共同打擊犯罪及司法互助協議) signed in 2009.
The bureau said that after a successful heroin smuggling bust and seizure of more than 100kg of the drug last month, and a bust leading to the seizure of 80kg of heroin in August last year, there has been a strong demand for heroin in the country, and smugglers have been working to import larger quantities.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs has fined Taobao NT$1.2 million (US$36,900) for advertisements that exceeded its approved business scope and ordered the Chinese e-commerce platform to make corrections in the first half of this year or its license would be revoked. Lawmakers have called for stricter supervision of Chinese e-commerce platforms and more stringent measures to prevent China from laundering its goods through Taiwan as US President Donald Trump’s administration cracks down on origin laundering. The legislature’s Finance Committee yesterday met to discuss policies to prevent China from dumping goods in Taiwan, inviting government agencies to report on the matter. Democratic Progressive Party
Taiwan and its Pacific ally Tuvalu on Tuesday signed two accords aimed at facilitating bilateral cooperation on labor affairs, according to Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA). The governments inked two agreements in Taipei, witnessed by Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) and visiting Deputy Tuvaluan Prime Minister Panapasi Nelesone, MOFA said in a news release. According to MOFA, the agreements will facilitate cooperation on labor issues and allow the two sides to mutually recognize seafarers’ certificates and related training. Taiwan would also continue to collaborate with Tuvalu across various fields to promote economic prosperity as well as the well-being of their
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office has continued its investigation into allegations of forged signatures in recall efforts today by searching the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) city chapter and questioning several personnel including the chapter director, according to media reports. Among those questioned and detained were KMT Taipei chapter director Huang Lu Chin-ju (黃呂錦茹), chapter secretary-general Chu Wen-ching (初文卿), chapter secretary Yao Fu-wen (姚富文) and first district committee executive director Tseng Fan-chuan (曾繁川). Prosecutors said they would not confirm reports about who had been summoned. The investigation centers on allegations that the ongoing recall campaigns targeting Democratic Progressive Party legislators Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤)
RSS