Police on Wednesday said they arrested a Taiwanese man and two foreign nationals in New Taipei City and Taoyuan on suspicion of selling cannabis products online.
The police seized 189 cannabis plants, along with an unspecified amount of related marijuana products, ointments and creams, 10.5g of cannabis seeds, and equipment for cultivating the plants, police officials said.
The Third Special Police Corps arrested a Taiwanese man, surnamed Ma (馬), 42, a Mexican man, 43, and a Nepalese man, 50, on suspicion of running an illegal cannabis sale operation for several years, said Yang Ting-yeh (楊定曄), captain of the police corps investigation unit.
Photo courtesy of the Third Special Police Corps
Police set up an investigation team following reports last year of a group selling marijuana products online, Yang said.
In Taiwan, cannabis and its derivative products are listed as Category 2 narcotics, under the Narcotics Hazard Prevention Act (毒品危害防制條例), Yang added.
After collecting evidence, police searched a location in New Taipei City’s Tamsui District (淡水) in November last year, detaining the Mexican national, where they also found 103 cannabis plants, 2.4kg of dried materials and one set of cultivation equipment, Yang said.
Investigators said that the Mexican national was teaching English and got to know fellow English teachers — Ma and the Nepalese man — at a language center, where they became friends and had an interest in growing cannabis for their own consumption, Yang said.
The Nepalese man allegedly learned techniques for cultivating cannabis before coming to Taiwan, officials said.
He got a job teaching English in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口) and had cultivated cannabis plants at home, for which he was convicted and sentenced to seven years imprisonment in 2017, officials said.
However, he did not report to prison, and remained in hiding with the help of Ma, who helped him rent a luxury condominium in New Taipei City, making a living by growing cannabis and derived marijuana products, police said.
Ma used “party” (派對), “group purchase” (團購) and other code words to sell marijuana on social media platforms, police officials said.
The trio profited from online sales over the past four years, Yang said, adding that they operated three cannabis production centers, which were shut down following police raids.
Over the two major raids, police seized 292 plants and more than 4kg of derived marijuana products with a street value estimated at more than NT$20 million (US$668,248), Yang said.
The investigation is still ongoing.
The three men face charges relating to the production and sales of narcotics.
The Mexican man has been in judicial detention since November last year, the Nepalese national was sent to prison to serve the previous conviction’s seven-year term, while Ma was denied bail and has been detained since his arrest, Yang said.
FINAL COUNTDOWN: About 50,000 attended a pro-recall rally yesterday, while the KMT and the TPP plan to rally against the recall votes today Democracy activists, together with arts and education representatives, yesterday organized a motorcade, while thousands gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei in the evening in support of tomorrow’s recall votes. Recall votes for 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and suspended Hsinchu City mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) are to be held tomorrow, while recall votes for seven other KMT lawmakers are scheduled for Aug. 23. The afternoon motorcade was led by the Spring Breeze Culture and Arts Foundation, the Tyzen Hsiao Foundation and the Friends of Lee Teng-hui Association, and was joined by delegates from the Taiwan Statebuilding Party and the Taiwan Solidarity
Instead of threatening tariffs on Taiwan-made chips, the US should try to reinforce cooperation with Taiwan on semiconductor development to take on challenges from the People’s Republic of China (PRC), a Taiwanese think tank said. The administration of US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose across-the-board import duties of 32 percent on Taiwan-made goods and levy a separate tariff on semiconductors, which Taiwan is hoping to avoid. The Research Institute for Democracy, Society, and Emerging Technology (DSET), a National Science and Technology Council think tank, said that US efforts should focus on containing China’s semiconductor rise rather than impairing Taiwan. “Without
An SOS message in a bottle has been found in Ireland that is believed to have come from the Taiwanese captain of fishing vessel Yong Yu Sing No. 18 (永裕興18號), who has been missing without a trace for over four years, along with nine Indonesian crew members. The vessel, registered to Suao (蘇澳), went missing near Hawaii on Dec. 30, 2020. The ship has since been recovered, but the 10 crew members have never been found. The captain, surnamed Lee (李), is believed to have signed the note with his name. A post appeared on Reddit on Tuesday after a man
President William Lai (賴清德) today condemned an alleged attempt by two Chinese to snatch a letter of congratulations handed to Taiwan’s taekwondo team after they won silver at the Summer World University Games in Essen, Germany, yesterday. A Chinese man and woman reportedly tried to snatch a congratulatory letter to athletes Hung Jiun-yi (洪俊義), Jung Jiun-jie (鍾俊傑) and Huang Cho-cheng (黃卓乘) from the Ministry of Education, and then argued with media employees. “Why are you taking our things?” the media employees asked. “Does that say Chinese Taipei?” the two Chinese reportedly said. Following the incident, Sports Administration Director-General Cheng Shih-chung (鄭世忠) wrote on
RSS