Several police officers have been implicated after a probe in southern Taiwan uncovered alleged wrongdoing, including senior police department officials accused of accepting cash and gifts from gravel quarry operators.
Liao Chin-shui (廖進水), deputy police chief of the Fenggang Borough (鳳崗) Police Station in Kaohsiung, was demoted and transferred to a smaller local police station after being questioned and released on bail of NT$100,000 yesterday.
The sergeant was involved in another corruption probe in 2008, but the charges were dropped. During that investigation, Liao was suspended from his post for one year and received a major demerit.
Another senior official, Chen Wen-yao (陳文耀), deputy commander of the Kaohsiung City Police Department’s traffic police corps, was also questioned and released without bail.
Chen was transferred to the post a month ago. He was the head of Pingtung County’s traffic police corps for many years.
The Pingtung District Prosecutors’ Office co-ordinated Thursday’s raid with officials from the Agency Against Corruption.
They searched and seized evidence at 13 locations in southern Taiwan.
Fifteen people were taken in for questioning: the two senior police officials Liao and Chen; two police officers, surnamed Sun (孫) and Hsu (徐); three gravel quarry operators, surnamed Li (黎), Chou (周) and Tsai (蔡); and several other suspects and witnesses.
The officials were alleged to have received regular monthly bribes of between NT$10,000 and NT$20,000 from the gravel quarry operators in exchange for allowing their trucks to violate traffic regulations, carry loads exceeding the legal limit and skip inspections at mandatory checkpoints.
Prosecutors said they have evidence and testimonies from witnesses that the business operators colluded with police officials and junior officers, treating them to banquets and giving them gifts such as alcohol, cigarettes and tea.
Prosecutors said Liao had provided the private information of junior officers responsible for conducting traffic, which the business operators used to persuade them not to crack down on gravel truck violations, and in some cases, provided them with bribes and gifts.
The case has raised public concern about senior police officials’ involvement with the gravel business, an industry known to have extensive ties and dealings with gangsters and organized crime syndicates.
Media commentators have said that bribery and corruption are a longstanding problem in the business, and authorities have been unable to clean up the industry because of the operators’ ties to local politicians, city and county councilors, and other influential figures.
There have always been high profits associated with the industry due to rigged contracts for riverbed sand-and-gravel quarrying and transportation, which are granted by local governments, and used in both public and private construction projects.
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