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.
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