The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday accused President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) of ignoring public safety and focusing only on the Nov. 26 local elections.
Public order in Taiwan “has been deteriorating at a speed that is beyond imagination,” KMT Taoyuan city councilor candidate Ling Tao (凌濤) told a news conference.
However, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has only been conducting election campaigns, which has “put public order in Taiwan at even higher risk,” he added.
Photo: Tien Yu-hua, Taipei Times
Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) of the DPP “never uttered a word about the case in the city’s Cingpu (青埔) and Jhongli (中壢) districts,” he said.
Ling was referring to reports of law enforcement officials busting a human trafficking ring in Taoyuan that had allegedly kidnapped and tortured more than 60 people.
KMT Taoyuan City Councilor Shu Tsui-ling (舒翠玲) accused the central government of “not reflecting on and recognizing its mistake, and playing down the incident to avoid causing public anger.”
Shu said Tsai has been to Taoyuan nine times and Su has been there twice since last month, adding that their security detail required at least 120 police officers every time they visited the city to secure the areas in their itineraries.
The number of police officers on duty on weekends are not enough, so all the officers in the city had to be on call during the visits, she said.
Police yesterday gave an update on the human trafficking case, saying they had arrested three more suspects in connection with the deaths of three people and the kidnapping of more than 60.
The New Taipei City Police Department’s Criminal Investigation Corps said that it on Wednesday tracked down a 30-year-old woman surnamed Fu (傅) in Keelung, a 32-year-old man surnamed Wu (吳) in Taipei and a 27-year-old man surnamed Wu in New Taipei City.
The suspects lured victims to locations in Taoyuan and New Taipei City on the pretext of holding interviews for high-paying jobs, police said.
The victims were then held against their will for periods ranging from less than a week to more than a month by the suspects, who tortured them to obtain their bank account details and IDs, police said.
Police said the suspects beat, pepper-sprayed and electrocuted uncooperative captives, adding that Tasers and retractable batons had been found at the two alleged torture sites.
The suspects likely used the stolen bank accounts to commit fraud and launder money, police said.
Twenty-one suspects have been detained so far and police are working to track down other suspects, they said.
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