Kaohsiung authorities have arrested five people and seized almost 1,000 pouches containing a mix of narcotics, while 29 Vietnamese migrant workers are facing separate charges after allegedly being found in possession of drugs at a party.
Kaohsiung police officials yesterday said that reports had been received that a crime ring had set up a call center to respond to online adverts for narcotics and was delivering the goods using taxis.
After surveilling the operation, police arrested four drivers and arrested a man surnamed Hsu (徐) in a rented building in Kaohsiung’s Singsin District (新興).
Photo courtesy of a member of the public
“Hsu was in charge of the place. It was a factory for blending, producing and storing drugs, and had packaging machines to make pouches of what is commonly known as ‘narcotic coffee powder,’” said Lin Chien-chuan (林建全), a captain from the Kaohsiung City Police Department’s criminal investigation division.
The building was also a communications center from which Hsu received calls from interested buyers, and then contact his cohorts, who worked as taxi drivers and delivered the drugs, Lin said.
In the building and in two taxis, police found 963 narcotic coffee powder pouches weighing 3.39kg in total and 26 pouches of ketamine weighing 1.32kg, as well as NT$551,300 in cash, Lin said.
Preliminary testing showed that the drugs contained cathinone and ketamine.
Often found containing a mixture of amphetamine, MDMA (ecstasy), nimetazepam and other chemical designer drugs, narcotic coffee powder is one of the leading causes of drug overdose-related deaths in Taiwan.
The five suspects face charges of breaching the Narcotics Hazard Prevention Act (毒品危害防制條例), Lin said.
In related news, Kaohsiung police were patrolling on Sunday night when they heard music from a restaurant in the city’s Linyuan District (林園) that was closed, and decided to investigate.
Inside they found 29 people partying and uncovered packages of amphetamine and ketamine, and 61 pouches that could contain narcotic coffee powder, although more testing would be required to ascertain their content, officials said.
All 29 are migrants from Vietnam who face charges of contravening the narcotics act, officials said.
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