Basketball star Chang Tsung-hsien (張宗憲) of the Formosa Dreamers was questioned by Taipei prosecutors yesterday in connection with cannabis allegedly found in an e-cigarette during a vehicle check.
Chang was in a taxi on Taipei’s Fuxing N Road (復興北路) early yesterday morning when police officers conducting vehicle checks found an e-cigarette containing cannabis, reportedly in Chang’s possession, Taipei police said.
Chang was taken to a police station to make a statement and then transferred to the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office for questioning.
Photo: CNA
Prosecutors said that Chang would be charged with illegal possession of a category 2 drug in contravention of the Narcotics Hazard Prevention Act (毒品危害防制條例).
Chang was quoted as saying that a friend gave him the e-cigarette as a gift at a private party and he did not know that it contained cannabis, but smoked it out of curiosity.
He denied being a habitual cannabis user.
Chang provided samples for testing for illegal drug use and was released after questioning, but restricted to his home during further investigation.
The 31-year-old, also known as Jet Chang, has been a star player this season for the Formosa Dreamers, a Changhua County-based franchise in the ASEAN Basketball League.
After graduating from high school in Taiwan, he traveled to the US and played for Brigham Young University-Hawaii in the National Collegiate Athletic Association using the name Jet Chang.
He then played for the Sichuan Blue Whales in the Chinese Basketball Association, followed by a season with Kia Carnival in the Philippines.
He returned to Taiwan in 2016 to play for the Fubon Braves in the Super Basketball League, before joining the Formosa Dreamers.
Formosa Dreamers chairman Chang Cheng-chung (張承中) in a statement yesterday said that Chang Tsung-hsien had been suspended from the team.
The team would not terminate his contract and instead help him with his rehabilitation, the statement added.
In related news, Taipei police yesterday said that its officers fired 28 gun shots during the pursuit of a drug suspect at about 4am yesterday.
The officers pursued a vehicle with three passengers driven by a male surnamed Cheng (鄭), 40, after it did not stop for a check near Taipei Flora Expo Park, police said, adding that the vehicle rammed a police vehicle before speeding off.
After two officers were injured, police said they discharged their handguns at the vehicle’s tires before calling for backup.
Cheng’s vehicle was stopped by another police vehicle shortly afterward, and Cheng and the three passengers were arrested, police said.
A woman in the vehicle surnamed Hung (洪), 33, who was already wanted on drugs charges, was allegedly found in possession of 2.54g of heroin, police said.
Police said the investigation was continuing and they were also questioning the other two passengers, a man surnamed Lin (林), 38, and a woman surnamed Li (黎), 36.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS