Police in Chiayi County on Wednesday seized 13.2g of cannabis, and arrested 12 Thai nationals and an Indonesian woman following a months-long investigation into drug use among migrants.
All 13 were in Taiwan illegally, police said.
A probe was launched last year after police received a tip about use of cannabis and amphetamines by migrant workers, they said.
Photo: CNA
Five Thais were apprehended with 13.2g of cannabis, police said, adding that they told officers they had received the drugs from two Taiwanese.
Three of the five Thais have been deported, while two are in a rehab center, police said.
The two Taiwanese, who were arrested separately, told authorities that their supplier was Nasuriwong Wasan, a Thai residing illegally in Taiwan, police said.
Officers acting on the tip apprehended Wasan’s Indonesian girlfriend on a street in Yunlin County’s Yuanchang Township (元長) on Nov. 6, police said.
Officers tracked Wasan to a house in Yuanchang, where the pair were living along with 11 other undocumented Thai workers, police said.
While no controlled substances were found at the residence, Wasan told investigators that he had been selling drugs in Taiwan for the past two years, police said.
Prosecutors are investigating Wasan for alleged contraventions of the Narcotics Hazard Prevention Act (毒品危害防制條例), police said.
The other 12 who were apprehended are awaiting deportation and have been detained at the National Immigration Agency’s Chiayi County Service Center, police added.
Thirty-five earthquakes have exceeded 5.5 on the Richter scale so far this year, the most in 14 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said on Facebook on Thursday. A large earthquake in Hualien County on April 3 released five times as much the energy as the 921 Earthquake on Sept. 21, 1999, the agency said in its latest earthquake report for this year. Hualien County has had the most national earthquake alerts so far this year at 64, with Yilan County second with 23 and Changhua County third with nine, the agency said. The April 3 earthquake was what caused the increase in
INTIMIDATION: In addition to the likely military drills near Taiwan, China has also been waging a disinformation campaign to sow division between Taiwan and the US Beijing is poised to encircle Taiwan proper in military exercise “Joint Sword-2024C,” starting today or tomorrow, as President William Lai (賴清德) returns from his visit to diplomatic allies in the Pacific, a national security official said yesterday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said that multiple intelligence sources showed that China is “highly likely” to launch new drills around Taiwan. Although the drills’ scale is unknown, there is little doubt that they are part of the military activities China initiated before Lai’s departure, they said. Beijing at the same time is conducting information warfare by fanning skepticism of the US and
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is unlikely to attempt an invasion of Taiwan during US president-elect Donald Trump’s time in office, Taiwanese and foreign academics said on Friday. Trump is set to begin his second term early next year. Xi’s ambition to establish China as a “true world power” has intensified over the years, but he would not initiate an invasion of Taiwan “in the near future,” as his top priority is to maintain the regime and his power, not unification, Tokyo Woman’s Christian University distinguished visiting professor and contemporary Chinese politics expert Akio Takahara said. Takahara made the comment at a
DEFENSE: This month’s shipment of 38 modern M1A2T tanks would begin to replace the US-made M60A3 and indigenous CM11 tanks, whose designs date to the 1980s The M1A2T tanks that Taiwan expects to take delivery of later this month are to spark a “qualitative leap” in the operational capabilities of the nation’s armored forces, a retired general told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) in an interview published yesterday. On Tuesday, the army in a statement said it anticipates receiving the first batch of 38 M1A2T Abrams main battle tanks from the US, out of 108 tanks ordered, in the coming weeks. The M1 Abrams main battle tank is a generation ahead of the Taiwanese army’s US-made M60A3 and indigenously developed CM11 tanks, which have
RSS