Supreme Court rejects ex-police officer's appeal in smuggling case

Taipei, Jan. 16 (CNA) The Supreme Court has upheld a sentence of 10 years and six months and an eight-year deprivation of civil rights given to a former police officer surnamed Wu (吳) who was found guilty of helping and protecting a drug smuggler.

After having previously sent the case back to the Taiwan High Court on appeal, the Supreme Court decided on Thursday last week that the latest judgement by the High Court on Wu's sentencing was appropriate, and it turned down his appeal, meaning that the verdict was final.

According to court documents, Wu, a member of the Third Special Police Corps in charge of inspecting imported tobacco and alcohol, colluded with a drug smuggler surnamed Lin (林) in 2018 and 2019 to smuggle 1,000 packs of ketamine and 500 packs of amphetamines into Taiwan from Vietnam.

Lin promised Wu NT$10 million (US$317,995) if the smuggling operation was successful, the documents showed.

Originally, they decided to pack 1,000 packs of ketamine in a shipping container holding powdered lime for use in the steel industry and gave the name of a steel producer as the importer to avoid detection at Taiwan's border.

But the container never made it out of Vietnam in December 2018 after customs officials there called the Vietnamese contact for the shipment and the steel company in Taiwan listed on the shipping documents, without getting an answer.

Wu and Lin then decided to try importing the drugs again in January 2019, this time using the name of a timber company.

Lin added 500 kilograms of amphetamines to the container, bringing the total size of the shipment to 1,500 kilograms, with the drugs packed between particleboards.

When the shipping containers arrived, Wu discovered that the police and Kaohsiung Customs were about to open and inspect the two containers and informed Lin not to claim the goods.

Law enforcement officials, however, deemed the fact that nobody claimed the containers to be abnormal, and subsequently collected evidence leading to the arrest of Wu and Lin.

In the first trial, the Ciaotou District Court in Kaohsiung sentenced Wu to 12 years in jail for forgery and taking a bribe, and also stripped him of his civil rights for eight years.

Wu appealed the case, and the Taiwan High Court upheld the lower court verdict.

Wu then appealed the case again, and the Supreme Court decided to uphold a jail term of one year and six months for Wu for the forgery charges.

But it asked the lower court to review Wu's bribery conviction after Wu only admitted to committing some of the offenses.

Considering that Wu did not actually receive the bribe he was promised, the High Court decided to reduce his total sentence to 10 years and six months.

Following the decision, Wu filed an appeal but was turned down by the Supreme Court.

Lin, meanwhile, was given a 12-year jail sentence for drug trafficking.