A record 1,415 kilograms of seized illegal drugs, valued at more than NT$10 billion, were destroyed by burning on 5 May in a public display of the government’s crackdown on drug production, smuggling and trafficking.[1]
The Investigation Bureau under the Ministry of Justice sent the haul to the Muzha Refuse Incineration Plant in Taipei in the early afternoon under heavy guard, with a police escort, an armoured money van borrowed from the Bank of Taiwan and an overhead helicopter patrol.[1] Justice Minister Tseng Yung-fu and Bureau Director-General Wu Ying jointly presided over the destruction ceremony at the plant.[1]
Of the narcotics destroyed, marijuana represented the bulk of the haul at nearly 980 kilograms, followed by heroin at almost 380 kilograms; bureau officials said confiscated drugs can only be destroyed after courts have ruled and punishment has been handed down in the cases behind them.[1]
