The Coast Guard Administration today said it has seized 7.46kg of the Category 3 drug etomidate illegally smuggled from China.
The amount could be used to make 85,000 vials of electronic cigarette liquid for new “zombie vapes,” the Miaoli Reconnaissance Brigade of the coast guard’s Investigation Branch said.
“Zombie vapes” containing the short-lived anesthetic cause uncontrollable shaking and loss of cognitive function and bodily control in the user, brigade Deputy Captain Hsu Li-chuan (徐麗娟) said, adding that it began to circulate in Taiwan last year.
Photo courtesy of the Coast Guard Administration Investigation Branch
The shipment was intercepted and prevented from reaching the streets, she added.
The brigade received a tip-off in the past few days and built a task force with the Keelung Second Investigation Branch, Hsu said.
During raids in Miaoli County’s Jhunan Township (竹南) and New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋), investigators reclaimed more than 7kg of etomidate, 72 e-cigarettes and 4,970 vials of vaping cartridges containing the drug, the brigade said.
Officials arrested two people suspected of smuggling the drug, a 40-year-old surnamed Hsieh (謝) and a 41-year-old surnamed Yeh (葉) living in Jhunan, it added.
The pair held large quantities of etomidate in a Banciao warehouse and were arrested while apparently attempting to smuggle the tainted e-cigarettes, it said.
In a separate case from mid-July, a man surnamed Huang (黃) was arrested for crashing into a police car at high speed, killing one officer and injuring another.
Huang had admitted to using the “zombie drug.”
The Executive Yuan classified etomidate as a Category 3 drug on Aug. 5.
Additional reporting by Tsai Cheng-min
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