Three men were indicted late last month for allegedly smuggling heroin into Taiwan after the Aviation Police Bureau and Taipei Customs seized more than 14kg of heroin and arrested the men in October last year, the two agencies said on Sunday.
The Taoyuan District Prosecutors’ Office indicted the three — surnamed Wang (王), Shih (施) and Yang (楊) — late last month on charges of conspiring to smuggle drugs into Taiwan in contravention of the Narcotics Hazard Prevention Act (毒品危害防治條例).
Chen Mien-tsung (陳綿宗), an officer in the bureau’s Criminal Investigation Police Brigade, on Sunday said that the case stemmed from the seizure of nearly 14.4kg of heroin, classified as a Category 1 illicit drug.
The bureau had learned that drug trafficking syndicates were transporting heroin from Thailand into Taiwan and disguising it as nutrition milk powder for seniors, Chen said.
Wang — the key suspect in the case — imported genuine milk powder in the months leading up to the drug bust to try to throw customs officers off, Chen said.
However, their suspicions were raised by a tainted milk powder package addressed to “Liao Sen-rong” (廖森榮) that arrived in Taiwan from Thailand on Oct. 23.
Taipei Customs officers noticed something was wrong and searched it, finding 7.2kg of heroin hidden in milk powder cans, Chen said.
They reported it to aviation police, who went to the warehouse the next day to trace the package and found that there was another parcel sent to Liao that looked the same as the milk powder package.
It contained 18 cans of milk powder in which 7.17kg of heroin were hidden, but customs officers decided to allow the cans to be delivered to see who would sign for them.
On Oct. 25, after Wang received a text message that the package could be picked up, Yang and Shih were informed to collect it in Taichung.
After Yang signed the fake name “Liao Sen-rong,” police arrested him on the spot, while Shih, who was outside waiting, fled the scene.
Two days later, Shih was arrested at a convenience store, while Wang was arrested in a motel parking lot in Taichung.
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