Taiwan busts drug ring in global operation, 13 arrested

Taipei, Sept. 5 (CNA) Taiwan's Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) on Thursday announced that they had dismantled a cross-border Taiwanese drug trafficking ring and arrested 13 Taiwanese suspects after working with police from the U.S., Japan, South Korea, and Malaysia.

At a press conference, Yang Kuo-sung (楊國松), head of the CIB's International Criminal Affairs Division, said local authorities were notified by South Korean police of the trafficking ring's activities in April and through long-term intelligence exchanges with law enforcement authorities from other countries, arrested the 13 suspects.

The suspects were turned over to the Taoyuan District Prosecutor's Office for allegedly violating the Organized Crime Prevention Act and the Narcotics Hazard Prevention Act.

More than US$80 million worth of methamphetamine and cocaine which were destined for South Korea, Japan and Malaysia have been seized, according to the CIB.

After identifying that several Taiwanese were traveling to the U.S. to obtain drugs, a special task force was formed and it found that a 28-year-old Taiwanese man surnamed Cheng (鄭), associated with a gang called Thento Union, was a key suspect, the CIB said.

According to the CIB, Cheng formed the drug ring with several people, including a man surnamed Chen, and it smuggled methamphetamine to South Korea and Japan between March and May this year.

Knowing that tourists often bring home local specialties such as wine as gifts when visiting California, the ring's members based in Los Angeles dissolved methamphetamine in water and then sealed it inside wine bottles, disguising it as commercial red or white wine to facilitate transport and evade detection, the CIB said.

It added that Chen was responsible for coordinating with ring members in the U.S., who handed such bottles to couriers of the ring.

These couriers then each carried six bottles in their luggage and flew to South Korea and Japan, where other members of the ring collected the drugs. The couriers returned to Taiwan after delivering the drugs, according to the CIB.

The special task force collaborated with U.S. authorities and seized 24 bottles of liquid methamphetamine in May. Four couriers, who were going to deliver these bottles, were later deported by U.S. authorities and arrested by Taiwanese police upon their arrival in Taiwan.

It was also found that in addition to methamphetamine, the ring smuggled cocaine to Malaysia.

According to the CIB, the special task force had conducted six raids and in collaboration with authorities from the four countries.

The CIB added that during the raids, South Korean police seized approximately 5.6 kilograms of methamphetamine, while U.S. authorities confiscated around 38 kgs of liquid methamphetamine contained in 24 bottles, totaling around 47 kgs of methamphetamine.

Additionally, Malaysian authorities seized 45 kilograms of cocaine from the suspects.

The estimated value of the methamphetamine is around NT$920 million (US$28.68 million), and the cocaine is valued at approximately NT$1.76 billion, according to the CIB.