Taoyuan prosecutors on Wednesday arrested three police officers suspected of threatening a sex worker to force her boss to pay a bribe.
At press time last night, police officer Lee Kuo-han (李國漢), 43, was being held incommunicado, with prosecutors saying they had gathered sufficient evidence of Lee’s involvement and planned to charge him with corruption.
Lee, a senior officer at the Puren (普仁) substation of Taoyuan’s Jhongli (中壢) Precinct, has been suspended from his job, pending an investigation.
According to prosecutors, a real-estate broker who is a friend of Lee’s tipped him off about a sex trade operator in Jhongli, surnamed Lin (林).
The friend said Lin has prostitutes working in 10 rented studio apartments, most of whom were Chinese women who had entered Taiwan on tourist visas.
Local media reports said that Lee, accompanied by two junior police officers, arrested a Chinese woman surnamed Tang (唐) earlier this month, accusing her of illegally providing sex services.
Lin sent his assistant to deal with the matter, reports said.
After a cursory questioning, Lee let Tang go, while allegedly telling Lin’s assistant: “You guys have a big operation going on here, but you do not know the proper way [of doing business]. Next time you have any problems, you should approach me. If not, let’s see what happens.”
The message was interpreted as Lee demanding a bribe if Lin wanted to continue operating within his jurisdiction.
However, Lin did not contact Lee, reports said.
On Monday, Lee, again accompanied by the two junior officers, planned another raid at Lin’s place, with one of the officers posing as a client seeking sex services.
They arrested another Chinese woman, surnamed He (何), who works for Lin, prosecutors said.
Lee confiscated He’s identification documents, took nude pictures of her and briefly detained her at an undisclosed location before letting her go, while demanding that Lin pay NT$60,000 to get He’s documents back.
Instead of complying with Lee’s demand, Lin reported the case to the authorities.
Prosecutors on Wednesday led a raid of the Puren substation to gather evidence, and arrested Lee and the two junior officers.
Prosecutors said they had found evidence of Lee confiscating the woman’s documents, demanding a bribe and other misconduct.
The two junior officers were released on bail of NT$10,000 each.
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