Eleven convicted criminals who fled Taiwan before starting their prison sentences were on Wednesday repatriated from Vietnam, after being caught illegally crossing into the country from Cambodia.
The Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security on Aug. 12 passed on information about the 11 individuals, who were caught without passports near the Cambodian border, to a liaison officer from Taiwan’s National Police Agency, the Criminal Investigation Bureau said in a statement on Wednesday.
All 11 were subsequently found to have been convicted mainly of fraud-related crimes in Taiwan, the bureau said, adding that they had failed to report to prison and surreptitiously left the country.
Four of the fugitives had in 2020 been repatriated from Montenegro after they were arrested over allegations of involvement in fraud schemes targeting people in China, while one of them, identified by his surname, Liang (梁), was arrested by police in Taiwan on gang-related charges in 2018.
The bureau said it would work alongside the authorities in Vietnam to investigate whether the 11 were involved in trafficking people to Cambodia to work in fraud schemes.
The bureau also announced that 16 Taiwanese had been repatriated from Cambodia since Sunday following an announcement of a crackdown on human trafficking by Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior Sar Kheng, the bureau said.
Eleven were helped with arranging flights from Vietnam or Cambodia by Taiwan’s overseas office in Ho Chi Minh City on Sunday and Monday, and five were assisted by the representative office in Thailand on Tuesday, the bureau said.
Also on Wednesday, the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office brought a motion against the Taipei District Court’s decision to release six suspects indicted on human trafficking charges on Friday last week, with bail set at NT$200,000 to NT$700,000.
The six are among the nine suspects from two separate groups arrested in May and July, and indicted on the same day, who allegedly posed as recruiters in Sihanoukville, Cambodia, on Facebook and targeted young adults with offers of high-paying jobs in casinos or gaming clubs, prosecutors said in the indictment.
Prosecutors said in a statement that the six suspects, who had been detained after their arrests and held incommunicado, were very likely to tamper with evidence that could lead to the arrest of other accomplices wanted by the authorities.
As of press time last night, the court had not made a decision.
A free exhibition aimed at teaching the public about air-raid shelters and basic emergency personal protection skills today opened on the concourse level of the Taipei MRT's Ximen Station. The event, organized by the National Police Agency, aims to raise awareness about disaster preparedness ahead of nationwide air raid drills scheduled from July 15 to 18, which are part of broader urban resilience exercises. The exhibition outlines the recommended actions people should take depending on whether they are indoors, commuting or outdoors when air-raid sirens sound. It also teaches people how to equip air-raid shelters and pack emergency "go bags," with displays
A first shipment of five tons of Taiwan tilapia was sent from Tainan to Singapore on Wednesday, following an order valued at NT$600,000 (US$20,500) placed with a company in the city. The products, including frozen whole fish and pre- cooked fish belly, were dispatched from Jiangjun Fishing Harbor, where a new aquatic processing and logistics center is under construction. At the launch, Tainan Mayor Huang Wei-che (黃偉哲) called the move a “breakthrough,” marking Taiwan’s expansion into the Singaporean tilapia market. Taiwan’s tilapia exports have traditionally focused on the United States, Canada, and the Middle East, Huang said, adding that the new foothold in
An electric bus charging facility at Taipei Metro’s Beitou Depot officially opened yesterday with 22 charging bays to serve the city’s 886 electric buses. Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) told a ceremony to mark the opening of the facility that the city aims to fully electrify its bus fleet by 2030. The number of electric buses has grown from about 650 last year to 886 this year and is expected to surpass 1,000 by the end of the year, Chiang said. Setting up the charging station in a metro depot optimizes land and energy use, as the metro uses power mainly during the
An exhibition demonstrating the rejuvenation of the indigenous Kuskus Village in Pingtung County’s Mudan Township (牡丹) opened at the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency’s conservation station in Taipei on Thursday. Agency Director-General Lin Hwa-ching (林華慶) said they have been promoting the use and development of forestry resources to local indigenous residents for eight years to drive regional revitalization. While modern conservation approaches mostly stem from western scientific research, eco-friendly knowledge and skills passed down through generations of indigenous people, who have lived in Taiwan for centuries, could be more suitable for the environment, he said. The agency’s Pingtung branch Director-General Yang Jui-fen (楊瑞芬)
RSS