Taiwan fraud suspects deported from Cambodia

2011/06/11
New Straits Times (Singapore)

The 122 suspects, detained Thursday in a rare co-ordinated police operation across several Asian countries, landed in Taiwan early Saturday and were taken to a police centre for questioning, said the Criminal Investigation Bureau. 

TAIPEI: More than 120 Taiwanese nationals arrested in Cambodia on suspicion of fraud were deported to Taiwan Saturday for further investigation, police on the island said.

They were among nearly 600 people, including 410 Taiwanese and 181 Chinese, rounded up across the region for allegedly running Internet and telephone scams mainly targeting mainland Chinese, according to the bureau.

Details of the scams are sketchy and appeared to have varied from country to country, but police believe thousands of people were taken in.

Taiwanese fraud rings have recently relocated to Southeast Asia after the island’s police joined forces with Chinese authorities to bust their operations.

Members of Taiwanese tour group contract dysentery in Cambodia

By Jenny W. Hsu

Taipei, Sept. 14 (CNA) - A group of workers from a Taiwanese insurance company contracted dysentery during a recent company trip to Cambodia, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said Tuesday.

The CDC confirmed that at least four of the 58 people in the tour group who fell ill during the five-day trip had contracted shigellosis, or bacillary dysentery, an inflammatory intestinal disorder that results in severe diarrhea, fever and abdominal pain.

The CDC said it has contacted the tour agency that organized the trip, as part of efforts to prevent further transmission of the disease.

The group of 140 people was on a tour in Cambodia Sept 3-7, and seven of them developed symptoms of fever and diarrhea at the airport on the return leg of the trip, said CDC Deputy Director-General Chou Jih-haw.

The CDC immediately located the other members of the group and found that 51 others had also displayed similar symptoms during the trip.

Preliminary investigations found that the problem may have been caused by the consumption of vegetables, juice, seafood and other uncooked items, the CDC said. Ice cubes could have been another source of the bacteria, it added.

Three Get Up to 20 Years for Drug Trafficking

By Chiep Mony, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
22 August 2008

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Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Wednesday sentenced three Taiwanese citizens between 12 and 20 years in prison for their involvement in the export of more than 1.2 kilograms of heroin from Cambodia.

Huang Chih Huang, 34, was sentenced to 20 years in prison and fined 60 million riel, or about $15,000. Lin Hui Min, 17, and Wu Chia Hsun, 16, both women, received 12 years and fines of 40 million riel, about $10,000, each.

The three are being held at Prey Sar prison, on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, following their arrest in December 2007 at Phnom Penh International Airport, when police confiscated heroin packets hidden under their clothes.

"The three confessed that they were hired to bring heroin from Cambodia to Taiwan," court deputy prosecutor Sok Kalyan said. "They are poor, and they did that for money."

Lawyers for the three were not available for comment.

Center for Social Development court monitor Hang Charya said the three had confessed to transporting the drugs for money.

Lor Ramin, secretary-general of the National Authority for Combating Drugs, said Friday that police were so far only able to arrest people who are hired to transport the drugs, instead of breaking up the organized crime network involved.

Police are continuing the investigation into the drug network, but would require help from Interpol, Lor Ramin said.

Taiwanese groups committed some of the most drug trafficking in Cambodia, he said.