Prosecutors Crack Down Drug Trafficking Organization

—Cruise Ship “SUN 12” Capsized While Transporting Drugs, 761 Kilograms Methamphetamine and Katamine Seized

The captain of cruise ship “SUN 12” and the ship’s husband sailed out from Kaohsiung Port on the evening of April 14, 2020, and arrived in the high sea at 10a.m. on the next (15) day. They received 649 kilograms methamphetamine and 190 kilograms ketamine from another trafficking ship, then hid the drugs into the cabin of “SUN 12”. However, while they sailed through the Bashi Channel on April 18 2020, the ship overturned due to uneven load and bad weather. The crew jumped off the ship for escaping, and the ship drifted to 3 miles from Houbi Lake. All the process was monitored by the task force, but in order to see the whole picture of the crime, the task force decided to keep still. The task force tow the ship back to the port in the name of rescue, then seized a total of 582.5 kg methamphetamine and 178.7 kg ketamine in the cabin and on the coast.

The prosecutor Tong directed the task force to keep looking into the plot. Through analysis of data related to the drug crime, the investigation team found out the identity of the captain, the ship’s husband, the transportation agent, the cargo receiver, and the cargo owner who were involved in the case. The team have worked day and night accessing the monitors around Taiwan, the high-tack M-vehicles, and communication records. Rapidly on April 30, May 2, and May 14, the captain surnamed Lee, the agent surnamed Hsu, the cargo receiver surnamed Zhang were arrested. After interrogation, the prosecutor found out that the unknown owner assigned the agent Hsu to arrange the smuggling. The agent Hsu asked captain Lee to transport the drug from the high sea to Taitung, then informed the receiver Zhang to tow the drugs back to land, and deliver to the unknown owner’s representative surnamed Lee. The representative Lee has prepaid NT 500,000 to the captain Lee and NT 1,800,000 to the receiver Zhang. Due to the captain, the agent, and the receiver were all highly suspected of committing the drug smuggling and may conspire with co-offender, the prosecutor Tong applied to the court to put them under detention and the application was grant by the court later.

In order to honor the remarkable success to crack down the drug crime, Chief Prosecutor of Taiwan High Prosecutor Office Xing visited Kaohsiung Prosecutor Office on July 2, 2020 to give the credit to prosecutor Tong, the fifth, thirteenth , fourteenth Marine patrols, the fifth, sixth patrols of Southern branch, and the Lingya branch of Kaohsiung Government Police Department. In the ceremony, Prosecutor Tong made a presentation on how to solve the case.