The Hsinchu County District Court on Monday fined a criminal ring headed by Ho Ching-chung (何敬忠) NT$70 million (US$2.28 million) for illegal logging and poaching of protected wildlife in 2020.
Ho, 52, a resident of Hsinchu County’s Hsinchu’s Jianshi Township (尖石) died after being released on bail last year, the ruling said.
The group operated in the area for years, cutting down protected trees, such as red cypress and Taiwan yellow cypress, it said.
Photo: Tsai Chang-sheng, Taipei Times
The group also shot and killed a Formosan black bear, an endangered species and iconic symbol of Taiwan.
The 14 people were found guilty of contravening the Forestry Act (森林法), and ordered to pay NT$70 million in total fines, including more than NT$10 million each for three of the principal figures, the ruling showed.
In January 2020, after being tipped off, police intercepted and searched the vehicles of members of the group as they were traveling down a mountain road.
Aside from finding eight pieces of cypress wood in the vehicles, police found more logged tree remains, along with chainsaws and other tools, as well as canvas tents that the group used as temporary living quarters at the logging site.
The court denounced Ho and his accomplices for stealing 500kg of the nation’s valuable forestry resources, saying they have harmed efforts to protect the nation’s mountain forests and damaged the ecosystem.
“The suspects were accomplices in the illicit sale of these protected tree species and enticing other criminal elements to join the underground business of selling illegally logged trees,” it said.
An investigation found that the group sold illegally logged wood for NT$30,000 to NT$300,000 per piece.
The court sentenced members of the group from several months up to two-and-a-half years in prison.
After being released on bail in June last year, Ho went missing.
A body found in a mountainous area was confirmed to be that of Ho. He died of COVID-19.
Taiwanese were praised for their composure after a video filmed by Taiwanese tourists capturing the moment a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck Japan’s Aomori Prefecture went viral on social media. The video shows a hotel room shaking violently amid Monday’s quake, with objects falling to the ground. Two Taiwanese began filming with their mobile phones, while two others held the sides of a TV to prevent it from falling. When the shaking stopped, the pair calmly took down the TV and laid it flat on a tatami mat, the video shows. The video also captured the group talking about the safety of their companions bathing
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically
RSS