The Coast Guard Administration’s Keelung mobile-investigation team broke up an international drug ring based in Neihu and arrested eleven people, including its alleged kingpin, a Canadian who taught English in Taiwan, after three months of surveillance.[1] Officers spotted a Taiwanese-American man, Su Sheng-hsi, leaving a building after he had allegedly bought drugs, arrested him, and then sent him back upstairs as bait to catch Mathieu Forand James, the alleged ringleader.[1] Seven other foreign nationals and three Taiwanese Americans were also arrested in connection with the ring, whose members included English teachers from Canada, Australia and Hong Kong.[1]
The ring smuggled drugs into the country inside textbooks and sold them to foreign students and returning Taiwanese students from overseas in pubs and night spots, as well as over the Internet.[1] On site the coast guard found 600 grams of cocaine, some marijuana and hundreds of ecstasy pills.[1] Forand, 28, of Port Moody, British Columbia, was found with cocaine, ecstasy and marijuana when officers raided a party at his Taipei home, and prosecutors were seeking the death penalty or 25 years in prison while his lawyer argued for 10 to 15 years.[2]
James and Su were held in custody for violating drug regulations while the other arrested people were released to serve as witnesses, and the Coast Guard said it was investigating whether more people were involved.[1]
