New Taipei City police had three suspects in custody yesterday after they handed themselves in on Saturday for allegedly beating gang member Chen Chih-chiang (陳智強) to death, police officials said.
Accompanied by a lawyer, the three suspects headed to a New Taipei City police station on Saturday to report the killing of Chen, 35, and said that his body was in a metal shack in the city’s Yinnge District (鶯歌), officials said.
Prosecutors said they have filed murder charges against Lee Hao (李灝), Chen Po-an (陳柏安), and Lee Chih-hao (李志豪), who are all 25 and allegedly involved with gangs.
Chen’s friends said that he was taken by force from a car park in Taipei’s Nangang District (南港) and reported it to police on Saturday.
The three suspects said they had quarreled with Chen a few months ago and were seeking revenge, so they waited for their chance and kidnapped him, the officials said.
They said they were just roughing Chen up with wooden clubs and metal rods “to teach him a lesson,” but got carried away and beat him to death.
When police found his body, it was covered in blood and bruises, and his skull was cracked, officials said.
Background checks found that Chen was the boss of a local chapter of the Bamboo Union, which is active in the Nangang and Sijhih (汐止) districts, where the organized crime syndicate is involved in loan sharking, debt collection and extortion, officials said.
Chen had been convicted for physical assault and extortion, and investigated for gang-related activity.
In one incident, Chen and 20 gang members smashed up an Internet cafe because the proprietor would not pay protection money and had refused Chen’s request for a stake in the business.
Investigations are ongoing, officials said, adding that, to prevent further gang violence yesterday, there was a heavy police presence at the mourning hall set up by Chen’s family.
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