Drug trafficker's life sentence overturned, gets 17 years on appeal

Kaohsiung, June 5 (CNA) High court judges in Kaohsiung reduced a drug trafficker's life sentence to 17 years on Thursday after his cooperation helped lead to more arrests in Taiwan's largest methamphetamine smuggling case.

The drug trafficker surnamed Lee (李) was originally sentenced to life in May 2024 for plotting and recruiting at least six others to smuggle 1,201 kilograms of methamphetamine and nearly 120 kilograms of ketamine by sea to Kaohsiung in August 2023, the Taiwan High Court's Kaohsiung branch said Thursday.

According to the Criminal Investigation Bureau, it was the largest amount of methamphetamine ever seized in a single smuggling case in Taiwan.

Methamphetamine is classified as a category two narcotic under the Narcotics Hazard Prevention Act. The bureau estimated the seized amount in this case to be worth NT$2.36 billion (US$78.84 million).

In a series of district court decisions last year, Lee was the only one sentenced to life -- the heaviest punishment under law for transporting a category two narcotic -- while some of his accomplices were not convicted.

Among the six convicted accomplices, a man surnamed Yeh (葉) had his sentence reduced to 12 years from 14 years and two months for the same reason as Lee, the high court branch said.

Meanwhile, the high court branch said a man surnamed Chen (陳) had his prison sentence reduced by six months to 14 years and four months after he admitted to transporting the drugs, which he had denied during the district court trial.

On the other hand, the Indonesian captain of the cargo ship that transported the drugs to Kaohsiung, identified as Romadhon, was found guilty of drug trafficking after prosecutors appealed lower court decisions that had cleared him and Lam Lam, an Indonesian interpreter.

The high court judges rejected the prosecutors' appeal in the case of Lam Lam, as well as appeals involving three other convicted accomplices sentenced to 13 years and six months, 13 years and eight months and eight years and four months, the statement said.

The person sentenced to eight years and four months was the truck driver who transported the narcotics offloaded from the cargo ship. Police stopped the truck at a checkpoint at the Port of Kaohsiung after prosecutors received a tip-off about the shipment.

The driver received a prison term shorter than the 10-year minimum because he cooperated with the investigation and admitted to the crimes during his trial at Kaohsiung District Court, the court ruled in April last year.

The high court decisions can be appealed.