The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office indicted the head of a biotech company and six other people on Monday on suspicion of using a rented laboratory at Tatung University in Taipei’s Zhongshan District (中山) to manufacture illegal drugs.
The case dates back to April 2019, when the company head, surnamed Chang (章), rented out a lab at the university’s Business Incubation Center for the stated purpose of developing new medicines, the indictment said.
After apparently suffering operational setbacks, Chang decided to use his background in chemistry to begin manufacturing ketamine and one of its chemical precursors using equipment and raw materials he imported from China, prosecutors said.
Photo: Chien Li-chung, Taipei Times
In March last year, sparks from a centrifuge operated by one of Chang’s employees ignited chemicals in the lab, causing a large explosion and fire.
The incident eventually led police to determine that the lab was likely being used to manufacture drugs, and they opened an investigation.
As the probe proceeded, Chang began importing new equipment and materials for producing ketamine, which he stored at a company property in Taipei’s Neihu District (內湖), prosecutors said.
In May, prosecutors summoned Chang and six other people for questioning and also seized quantities of ketamine, semi-finished ketamine and drug production equipment and materials from the Neihu property and a warehouse in New Taipei City’s Sijhih District (汐止).
In its indictment of the suspects on Monday for violations of the Narcotics Hazard Prevention Act (毒品危害防制條例), the prosecutors’ office said all seven suspects had admitted their crimes during interrogation.
If they are similarly forthcoming during their trial, the office would recommend that the court impose a penalty at the lower end of the sentencing guidelines, it said.
Under the act, ketamine is listed as a Category 3 narcotic — out of four categories — with Category 1 being the most serious.
The production, transport or sale of Category 3 narcotics is punishable by a prison term of at least seven years and a fine of up to NT$10 million (US$320,482), the law states.
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