A pet breeding farm owner in Kaohsiung was put under judicial detention yesterday for his alleged role in smuggling cats into Taiwan.
Lin Cheng-lung (林政龍) was alleged by prosecutors to have organized the illegal import of 154 cats from China onboard a fishing vessel off the coast of Tainan.
The vessel was boarded by the Coast Guard on Aug. 19, and the cats were euthanized two days later to prevent the possible importation of rabies.
Photo provided by the Coast Guard Administration
Kaohsiung prosecutors and police on Thursday questioned the 42-year-old Lin, as evidence showed that he had communicated with other suspects in the case, former Coast Guard officer Chang Fang-yi (張芳溢) and his assistant Kuo Min-hao (郭閔豪).
Searches at Lin’s breeding farm found 30 pedigree dogs inside cages, which investigators suspected arrived through illegal smuggling.
Prosecutors said that Lin’s alleged involvement was a surprise, as his pet breeding farm is a certified business, and he has bred and sold pets legally.
However, after assessing the evidence and materials, prosecutors alleged that Lin was the leader of the cat smuggling operation.
Prosecutors alleged that Lin likely had been engaged in smuggling other valuable breeds of cats and dogs, as well as trafficking in cigarettes and other contraband.
Lin denied heading the smuggling operation. Chang and Kuo also denied any wrongdoing, although prosecutors said that they provided conflicting statements.
Lin told prosecutors that he was paid NT$3,000 per day by Chang to smuggle the cats, and was asked to pick up the cats from a Chinese vessel in international waters off the coast of Huayu in Penghu County.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS