Illegal loggers arrested in Taoyuan after earlier police mix-up

Taipei, Sept. 2 (CNA) Two men were arrested Sunday for illegal logging in Taoyuan's Fuxing District in northern Taiwan, just days after police mistakenly drew their guns on a family in the area, a National Police Agency official said Tuesday.

Hsu Hsiang-wei (徐翔偉), a deputy head of the agency's Seventh Special Police Corps, said that the men had been transferred to the Taoyuan District Prosecutors Office on suspicion of violating the Forestry Act and the Narcotics Hazard Prevention Act.

According to the special police corps, acting on intelligence from the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency's Hsinchu Branch, officers tracked a suspicious SUV on a roadside in Fuxing District on Sunday.

After a check, police spotted a lot of valuable timber inside the car, and immediately searched the surrounding area where they found two suspects -- surnamed Cheng (鄭) and Chang (張) -- who were hiding in a nearby creek bed, and arrested them, Hsu said.

At the site police seized 23 pieces of Taiwan incense cedar weighing 94 kilograms, as well as Taiwan jewel orchids, a protected forest by-product. They also confiscated the vehicle, an electric chainsaw, a hand saw, a hatchet and drug inhalers.

The arrests came a few days after police from the Daxi Precinct mistook a family of five in a sedan for illegal loggers, stopping their car and pulling out guns. The incident drew criticism after a family member described the ordeal in a social media post.

Police said they had apologized to the family and would review operational procedures.