TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – On Sunday (August 14), police arrested a man suspected of being involved in a human trafficking scam that lured Taiwanese to Cambodia.
At 9:55 on Sunday evening, six men and three women aged between 23 and 42 arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on China Airlines flight CI-836 from Bangkok, Thailand. Initially, Taiwanese media reported that the nine were all victims of a scam in which they posted high-paying jobs in various Cambodian jobs on social media, only to have their passports confiscated by trafficking gangs and forced to engage in wire fraud.
However, when he arrived at Taoyuan Airport at the head of the line, one of the returnees, wearing a gray sweatshirt and carrying a black bag, could be seen bowing his head. On Monday (August 15), he was identified as a 42-year-old New Taipei City resident surnamed He, who is believed to be a member of the Zhulian Gang, the largest of Taiwan’s three major criminal underworlds, according to Central News Agency.
He Mou is suspected of violating Article 297 of the Criminal Law, intending to defraud people who go abroad for profit, and violating the Regulations on the Prevention of Organized Crime, and is suspected of participating in organized crime. In addition, he is also suspected of violating Article 32 of the Human Trafficking Prevention Act by coercing people to engage in illegal labor.
The court allowed He to be detained because prosecutors deemed him a flight risk. According to a press release from the Criminal Investigation Bureau on Sunday, four cases of transnational human trafficking have been linked to Zhulian, and six suspects have been detained.
Twelve Taiwanese citizens, including eight men and four women, were stopped at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport on Sunday, claiming they were going to Myanmar. However, after interrogation, the nine were persuaded to return to Taiwan, while the other three were detained in Thailand and faced extradition to Taiwan on suspicion of involvement in a human trafficking ring, SET News reported.
