Nine people have been arrested and more than NT$12.75 million (US$431,677) in counterfeit New Taiwan dollars were seized in raids on a suspected drug and counterfeiting ring, the Taipei City Police Department said yesterday.
The ring was headed by a man surnamed Ko (柯), a 55-year-old member of the Four Seas Gang (四海幫), and a man surnamed Lu (呂) — both of whom have prior convictions, the department’s Criminal Investigation Division told a news conference.
The investigation began in October last year after police received intelligence on a drug production and trafficking ring, said Shih Chun-hsing (施純興), supervisor of the division’s section two.
Photo copied by Liu Ching-ho, Taipei Times
The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office authorized the launch of a special task force, which identified Ko and Lu as the alleged ringleaders, Shih said.
The people were arrested during coordinated raids in Taipei, New Taipei City and Hsinchu City, while police also discovered a drug repackaging site at a private residence, he said.
Five air guns, 76.38g of heroin, 154.87g of amphetamine, 14.56g of etomidate, 474.3g of propylene glycol, 1,162.8g of glycerol and NT$361,000 in cash were confiscated in the raids, he said.
Lu, who police said is known as the “counterfeit currency master,” served jail time in the 1990s for manufacturing older versions of NT dollar bills. He was released in 2020.
At Lu’s residence, officers confiscated 12,756 counterfeit NT$1,000 banknotes, along with 35 uncut counterfeit sheets, each containing four NT$1,000 bills, along with other materials used to produce fake paper currency.
Police urged people to be alert as it believes counterfeit notes are in circulation.
It released the following serial numbers that might have been used on the notes: RZ239907GM, PY288965HL, PW498068FL, TZ169260GQ, FL486439XJ, QW015231ET, QW672165AK, NX706635HK and TV208156DQ.
Anyone who encounters counterfeit currency should contact the police immediately, the department said.
The cases of all nine suspects have been transferred to the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office. They are suspected of contravening of the Penal Act of Offenses Against National Currency (妨害國幣懲治條例) and the Narcotics Hazard Prevention Act (毒品危害防制條例).
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
RSS