An American woman has been indicted for allegedly smuggling heroin from Laos at the request of a man she believed to be the superior of her online fiance, whom she had never met in person, the Aviation Police Bureau said yesterday.
A Taiwanese man assigned to collect the drugs was also arrested, the bureau said.
Customs officers at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport discovered 4.237kg of heroin hidden in her luggage in May, worth an estimated NT$30 million (US$997,838), Chen Po-chuan (陳博全), captain of the bureau’s Second Investigation Team, said in a joint media interview.
Photo courtesy of Aviation Police Bureau
The woman was transferred to the Taoyuan District Prosecutors’ Office on charges of contravening the Narcotics Hazard Prevention Act (毒品危害防制條例), Chen said.
The woman, who is about 50 years old, flew from the US to Laos, where she obtained the suitcase containing the heroin before traveling to Taiwan via Hong Kong, he said.
She told investigators she met her fiance online, but never in person, and after learning he was in jail, she was contacted by someone claiming to be his superior.
They allegedly pressured her to send remittances to the fiance, and later offered her a “job” in Laos, covering all expenses and providing daily allowances of several thousand Taiwan dollars.
The woman was eventually instructed to carry the suitcase to Taiwan, although she denied knowing drugs were concealed inside, Chen said.
The aviation police dismissed her claims, citing her inability to identify the man or explain his role, as well as the disproportionate rewards offered for the supposed job, and she was arrested on the spot, he said.
Investigators later apprehended a man surnamed Yeh (葉) in Taoyuan’s Jhongli District (中壢) who insisted he was only picking up the luggage for a friend.
Prosecutors suspect both were acting under the direction of a trafficking ring and indicted them earlier this month.
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