The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday it had intercepted a Taiwanese-owned ship attempting to smuggle 24 Vietnamese nationals into Taiwan illegally.
The Yilan District Prosecutors' Office concluded its investigation into the case on Friday last week and indicted four main suspects on charges of contravening the Human Trafficking Prevention Act (人口販運防制法) and the Immigration Act (入出國及移民法), said Chen Chien-chih (陳建志), deputy head of CGA’s Yilan Investigation Corps.
The CGA said the corps began monitoring the case in October last year after receiving intelligence about a human smuggling ring.
Photo: Tsai Yun-jung, Taipei Times
Led by Yilan prosecutors, the corps worked with other CGA units and the National Immigration Agency to form a joint investigation team, the statement said.
Using radar systems and other surveillance tools, the team found that the Taiwanese-flagged Jin Cai Man No. 8 fishing boat was showing unusual movements.
It then started following its crew members and uncovered a human trafficking scheme aimed at smuggling Vietnamese nationals into the country in exchange for profit.
After several days of surveillance, on April 25 at about 5pm, the CGA dispatched its Anping-class offshore patrol vessel and PP-10087 patrol vessel to intercept the fishing boat at 9.3 nautical miles (17.2km) from the baseline of Taiwan’s territorial waters, the statement said.
According to prosecutors, the human trafficking operation was led by two brothers surnamed Lee (李), who collected NT$250,000 (US$8,190.8) from each of the 24 Vietnamese nationals to get them onboard.
Before they could go ashore, they were threatened with being thrown into the sea if they did not pay an additional NT$150,000, prosecutors said, adding the Vietnamese agreed to pay the smugglers NT$9.6 million in total.
The Lee brothers, the captain, surnamed Lo (羅), and another man surnamed Ruan (阮), who approached the Vietnamese, were indicted on charges of contravening the Human Trafficking Prevention Act and the Immigration Act, prosecutors said.
Twenty-one of the Vietnamese were in detention for contravening the Immigration Act, while the other three have been deported, local media reported.
A preclearance service to facilitate entry for people traveling to select airports in Japan would be available from Thursday next week to Feb. 25 at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Taoyuan International Airport Corp (TIAC) said on Tuesday. The service was first made available to Taiwanese travelers throughout the winter vacation of 2024 and during the Lunar New Year holiday. In addition to flights to the Japanese cities of Hakodate, Asahikawa, Akita, Sendai, Niigata, Okayama, Takamatsu, Kumamoto and Kagoshima, the service would be available to travelers to Kobe and Oita. The service can be accessed by passengers of 15 flight routes operated by
Alain Robert, known as the "French Spider-Man," praised Alex Honnold as exceptionally well-prepared after the US climber completed a free solo ascent of Taipei 101 yesterday. Robert said Honnold's ascent of the 508m-tall skyscraper in just more than one-and-a-half hours without using safety ropes or equipment was a remarkable achievement. "This is my life," he said in an interview conducted in French, adding that he liked the feeling of being "on the edge of danger." The 63-year-old Frenchman climbed Taipei 101 using ropes in December 2004, taking about four hours to reach the top. On a one-to-10 scale of difficulty, Robert said Taipei 101
MORE FALL: An investigation into one of Xi’s key cronies, part of a broader ‘anti-corruption’ drive, indicates that he might have a deep distrust in the military, an expert said China’s latest military purge underscores systemic risks in its shift from collective leadership to sole rule under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), and could disrupt its chain of command and military capabilities, a national security official said yesterday. If decisionmaking within the Chinese Communist Party has become “irrational” under one-man rule, the Taiwan Strait and the regional situation must be approached with extreme caution, given unforeseen risks, they added. The anonymous official made the remarks as China’s Central Military Commission Vice Chairman Zhang Youxia (張又俠) and Joint Staff Department Chief of Staff Liu Zhenli (劉振立) were reportedly being investigated for suspected “serious
Taiwanese and US defense groups are collaborating to introduce deployable, semi-autonomous manufacturing systems for drones and components in a boost to the nation’s supply chain resilience. Taiwan’s G-Tech Optroelectronics Corp subsidiary GTOC and the US’ Aerkomm Inc on Friday announced an agreement with fellow US-based Firestorm Lab to adopt the latter’s xCell, a technology featuring 3D printers fitted in 6.1m container units. The systems enable aerial platforms and parts to be produced in high volumes from dispersed nodes capable of rapid redeployment, to minimize the risk of enemy strikes and to meet field requirements, they said. Firestorm chief technology officer Ian Muceus said
RSS