8 indicted in Penghu after marijuana worth NT$1.1 billion seized

Taipei, Nov. 19 (CNA) Prosecutors in Penghu County announced on Tuesday that eight suspects had been indicted for attempting to smuggle marijuana with a street value of NT$1.1 billion (US$33.9 million) into Taiwan.

The Penghu District Prosecutors Office said in a press release they had completed a two-month investigation into a drug smuggling ring that planned to use Penghu, an island county located in the Taiwan Strait, as a relay point to move 687 kilograms of marijuana into Taiwan proper.

The chief suspect in the drug smuggling scheme, a man named Ko (柯), was indicted for violations of the Narcotics Hazard Prevention Act along with seven other accomplices, the prosecutors said.

Authorities had received a tip-off that criminals were planning to hide drugs in shipping containers around the Mid-Autumn Festival in September.

A taskforce led by Penghu's Chief Prosecutor Kuo Geng-cheng (郭耿誠) was formed, including personnel from the Penghu District Prosecutors Office, the Coast Guard Administration, the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau, and various local police departments.

The drug smugglers first received the drug shipment from a Chinese fishing vessel in waters southwest of Eluanbi, Taiwan's southernmost point, in early September, according to the press release.

They then transported the narcotics back to Penghu County on their vessel where they loaded the cargo into an empty shipping container that had earlier been placed in an alley in Magong City.

Two suspects named Hsu (許) and Huang (黃) commissioned a freight company to transport the drug-laden container to Jianshan Wharf in the county where they planned to put the container onto a vessel to transport it to Taiwan's main island, the prosecutors allege.

However, the law enforcement taskforce had been monitoring the smugglers' operations.

When law enforcement officials seized the shipping container they found 26 large bags of marijuana inside, worth an estimated street value of around NT$1.1 billion.

Follow-up actions conducted in September and October led to further arrests as well as the seizure of the Taiwanese fishing vessel used in the operation.

Ko, Liang (梁), Chen (陳), Yan (顏), Chen (陳), Hsu, and Huang were charged with transporting Category Two narcotics under Article 4 of the Narcotics Hazard Prevention Act, which carries a sentence of 10 years to life.

Another suspect, also surnamed Chen (陳), was charged under Article 164 of the Criminal Code for harboring a fugitive, the prosecutors said.

According to the prosecutors' press release, this was the first case involving marijuana smuggled in a shipping container in Penghu County.