Ten sailors have been detained on suspicion of smuggling 1.3 tonnes of marijuana earlier this month, the largest drug haul of its kind in Taiwan, the Ciaotou District Prosecutors’ Office said on Friday.
The marijuana seized had a street value of NT$3.5 billion (US$113.9 million), prosecutors said, adding that the illegal operation was interdicted from Dec. 9 to 12 in the northwestern waters off Kaohsiung, where five uncrewed rafts being used to shuttle drugs from a Mongolian oil tanker were seized.
Prosecutors said that they worked with the Coast Guard Administration and multiple police departments across Taiwan to intercept the first uncrewed raft, registered in Tainan, on Dec. 10, which was carrying four bags of marijuana weighing 221.7kg. The next day, the task force again seized four similar rafts drifting in the same area, carrying 1,159.3kg of marijuana in 20 bags with the same packaging as the previous haul.
Read more at
https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2024/01/01/2003811455
